


Taken

by wheatear



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV series)
Genre: Alternate Season/Series 02, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Kidnapping, Multiple Pairings, POV Multiple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-12
Updated: 2013-09-05
Packaged: 2017-12-25 17:44:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 36
Words: 159,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/955918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheatear/pseuds/wheatear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU set after 2x15: Elijah succeeds in kidnapping Elena, Katherine is out of the tomb and the Salvatore brothers have one hell of a mess to fix. Sometimes you have no choice but to make a deal with the devil. If you can get the devil to make a deal with you...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

_She’s all poised to use it, to lure him in. All she has to bargain with is her life, so she does: she stabs herself and there’s a horrible gasping moment of pain, a horrified cry from Elijah, then she forces the promise out of him and stumbles into his arms. Her hand fumbles for the dagger that will kill him–_

_His hand is in her hair, everything feels slippery, there’s so much blood–_

_She falters._

_The next second his wrist is at her mouth and the iron tang of blood goes down her throat; she’s limp in his arms and she can’t feel the dagger, where did it go... She blinks, clarity returning to her vision, and sees Elijah’s dark eyes boring into her. He looks at her with a face like stone._

_She twists, cries out to Stefan and Damon._

_“Don’t leave the house–”_

_That’s all she has time to say before he takes her away._

*

  
Cold leather pressed against her cheek. It had all happened so fast: she was breathless, dizzy, frozen with shock. The space around her was dark and enclosed. Slowly, Elena sat up, felt around, and realized that she was in the back of a vehicle. She felt the engine thrum into life as the car started. And the driver...

Elijah.

Her eyes met his in the rear view mirror. Elena licked her lips, her mouth dry. She could still taste his blood in her mouth.

“Stay still and keep quiet,” he said. “We have a long journey ahead of us.”

There was nothing in his gaze that she could relate to, no emotion, not a flicker of anything. His eyes looked black and fathomless. Elena suppressed a shiver, turning away to see where they were. The spidery shapes of trees moved past her. They were on a country road: quiet, dark. They could be anywhere in the woods surrounding Mystic Falls. She leaned back against the seat and breathed deep, trying to keep calm.

The smell of blood was strong. She ran a hand over her stomach, feeling the place where she had stabbed herself. The wound was gone, but her fingers came away sticky.

She was alone in a car with a vampire who had just kidnapped her, and covered in blood. Keeping calm wasn’t easy. But Elijah’s eyes were fixed on the road ahead of him; he seemed entirely unaffected by the state of his human passenger. He slowed down to take a right turn; she heard the turn signal go _clickclickclickclick_ and when it stopped, she waited until her heartbeat had slowed down to the same rate before finding the courage to speak.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Somewhere safe.”

He still didn’t look at her. Everything about him was distant, as though she was a stranger he was escorting across town. No, not even that: a package to be delivered and ultimately disposed of. She was the doppelgänger, an object to be sought after, fought over and when the time came, destroyed. But she’d had the audacity to fight back, and now here they were. She knew that Elijah wouldn’t tell her where they were going. He wouldn’t tell her anything.

Elena shifted a little, glancing at the nearest door, wondering how risky it would be to try and jump out... But he’d grab her at once, of course. There was no way she could outrun him. She had no plan, no backup, no chance.

“If you’re thinking of doing anything foolish,” said Elijah, “I suggest you reconsider. There’s no one else for miles around.”

She swallowed. “What about my friends?”

“They won’t find you.”

“No, I mean – you won’t hurt them, will you? At the lake house... you promised...”

Elijah frowned. “I agreed and you attempted to kill me. Your word meant nothing. I owe you nothing.”

He said it with a chilling finality. In the face of his iron certainty, she felt herself crumbling. “Please–”

“Elena, if you will not be silent, I will make you.”

The silence that followed was thick with tension. It hung like a cloud in the air, heavy, tainted with the smell of blood. Elena stared out of the window, lost in thoughts of escape. Stefan and Damon would come for her. They had done so before. But Elijah knew this, and he knew that they had Bonnie on their side. Even if they found her, they were no match for him.

He could kill anyone except her. Her safety was her leverage. Somehow she had to figure out a way to use it.

*

  
Damon met Stefan back at the lake house, striding in with such furious energy that his brother didn’t have to ask him what had happened. They’d failed to find Elena. Elijah had spirited her away and they had no idea if she was five miles away or five hundred miles.

“I couldn’t reach Bonnie,” Stefan said quietly, holding up his phone. “I think it’ll have to wait until morning.”

“We don’t have until morning. Elijah could be out of the country by then.”

“He could be out of the country by now.”

Damon twitched. He felt – too much, he felt rage and desperation and guilt and most of all he felt murderous. He paced up and down, feeling as though he might burst.

“Goddammit,” he hissed, and he kicked at the broken door – the one Elijah had so casually destroyed with his stone throwing trick – sending it flying towards the open entrance. The resulting crash was not nearly as satisfying as he would have liked.

“Hey!” Stefan said, not quite shouting, but in warning.

Damon turned towards his brother, who beckoned him over. Stefan picked up some whiskey from the counter next to him to pour a drink, but Damon sped back and snatched it from his hand, drinking straight from the bottle. The alcohol burned down his throat. It didn’t ease anything, not at all, but if he had to drown in something, it might as well be drink.

He passed the bottle back to Stefan, who was hunched over at the counter, still and quiet in contrast to Damon’s restlessness. His brother looked up at him. Damon could see the despair in his eyes.

“Do you think Elijah will come back?”

“To kill us, maybe.” He remembered his conversation with Elijah at the dinner party: Elijah had informed them that he allowed Elena to stay at home as a courtesy, whatever the hell that meant, but the moment they became a liability... Damon felt the heaviness of his next words on his tongue. “He said that if he took her away, we’d never see her again.”

They both fell silent at that.

*

  
He took her to a beautiful converted farmhouse. Elena stared out over silent fields as the car stopped, wondering just how far they were from civilization. Elijah opened the door for her. She looked up at him mulishly.

“Elena.”

His tone was slightly exasperated. He didn’t need to explain himself; she knew what he meant. She stepped out and turned away from him, folding her arms. He gestured her towards the entrance. The owner, an old lady, let them in at once and Elena stared as she walked past but there was no sign of curiosity in her eyes. She must have already been compelled.

“This way.”

He took her upstairs and showed her into what appeared to be the master bedroom. There was a four poster bed and exquisite antique furniture. Another door led to an en suite bathroom.

“You must be tired,” said Elijah. “You will sleep here tonight, but first...” He took a step towards her. She flinched instinctively, her heart racing again. Elijah held out his hand. “Your necklace, please.”

His expression told her that he expected her to obey. After all, if she didn’t, it would take him only a second to rip it away. Slowly, Elena unclasped the necklace and handed it over, trying not to shiver as cool fingers brushed her palm. Something about his touch unsettled her. She felt naked without the necklace, though her only consolation was that she had been drinking vervain. She’d been taking it while Stefan drank her blood, so that he could build up a tolerance to both. Elijah still couldn't compel her.

She shrank back as he searched her face. “Look at me.”

 _No_ , she thought. She twisted, deliberately avoiding his gaze. Elijah clicked his tongue. The next second, she found herself slammed up against the wall. She cried out, but Elijah had her pinned, his body flush against hers. He cupped her face with one hand, forcing her to look at him. She stared at him, eyes wide and fearful. She felt horribly aware of how fragile she was to him, like a butterfly pinned in a drawer.

His gaze turned dark. “Where did you get the dagger?”

She didn’t answer. Elijah’s eyes remained locked on hers. Everything about him was intense, the feel of him so close nearly overwhelming. She realized a second too late that he was testing her immunity to his mind control, but she couldn't pretend now. The truth was already written all over her face. Her mouth was tight shut, thin and defiant, and she was breathing hard through her nostrils.

Elijah nodded, releasing her abruptly to step away. His face became cold and business-like again. “Understand this. You may have vervain in your blood, but that makes no difference. You will do as I say, when I say it, without question. Now you ought to get yourself cleaned up before you go to bed; Mrs Roberts will help you–”

She interrupted him, desperate to do something, anything, to change the situation and save her friends. “Please. It doesn’t have to be this way, we can come to an agreement – you have the dagger now and I can help you lure Klaus, I’ll do anything you want...”

“Yes, you will, as soon as the vervain passes out of your system.”

It wasn't a surprise, but it still hit her hard. She had days at the most before he could compel her, and then she would have truly lost any chance of saving her loved ones. Elena stepped forward and clutched his arm, struggling to hold back tears. “Elijah, I beg you, I’ll answer your questions, I’ll help you, I swear – just, don't hurt my friends–”

If he had a better nature at all, she was doing her best to appeal to it. For just a second, she thought she saw a hint of something – some emotion, maybe even sympathy – in his eyes. Then it vanished and all she could see was the impassive vampire again. She might as well be curling her hand around a marble statue for all the good she was doing.

He stared down at her. “Take a shower, Elena. Mrs Roberts will wash your clothes.”

A second later, she was alone. Elena stood still, breathing hard, taking a moment to make sure that he really had gone. Then she ran over to check the window. It was locked. A search of the room revealed no useful implement with which to threaten to kill herself – not that she thought that trick would work again anyway, not as long as Elijah could reach her.

He’d taken her phone. He had the dagger. She was trapped in a house where a living person resided, thus barring any other vampires from entering. She couldn’t escape. Her only option was to negotiate before he killed everyone she cared about and compelled her to be his willing sacrifice.

Her stomach clenched. What could she offer him to stop that from happening? She had no advantage over him, nothing. She was completely at his mercy.

If he had any.

Mrs Roberts came in to fuss over her, treating her like a welcome guest. Elena couldn't think of what else to do but go along with it.

Somehow, she slept.


	2. Powerless

Elena’s last injunction to them before disappearing had been not to leave the house. He and Stefan had immediately ignored that, though he understood why she had said it. She wanted to keep them safe. Elena had been all about keeping them safe lately. It pissed Damon off, but the worst thing was that it had been his idea to let Elena attempt to stab Elijah with the dagger. He should have known that her human reflexes wouldn’t have been enough.

So this was basically all his fault.

Damon spent some time going through the Gilberts’ secret stash of vampire-hunting weapons. They had everything in there: crossbows, stakes, wooden bullets, a couple of hunting rifles, dried vervain, liquid vervain; hell, they made Alaric look like an amateur. If he and Stefan had known that the Gilberts were such avid vampire hunters to this day, they might have been a little more wary about getting involved with Elena.

Well, no, they wouldn’t have. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except saving Elena, so Damon grabbed one of the sharpest-looking stakes from a shelf and sped over to Stefan in the living room. His brother was watching the sun come up over the lake, brooding as usual.

He’d have to remind Stefan what he was supposed to be doing. “Tell me Bonnie hasn’t slept in.”

Stefan blinked and looked at him. “Yeah, I’ll call her. We need to fill in everyone else too. Tell them what happened.”

“Bonnie first,” said Damon.

Using the witch to cast a spell would be the easiest way to find Elena. It had worked before. Elijah would be expecting them this time, but they’d just have to cope with that. Damon leaned back against the glass door that led outside to the lake while Stefan called Bonnie. The call went straight to voice mail. Stefan sighed; Damon drummed his fingers against his leg and muttered about useless witches. Many times he had wished that they didn’t have to rely on Bonnie. She was unreliable at best and tried to kill him at worst. But she was all they had.

“She’s probably asleep,” said Stefan. “I’ll try again later.”

He was still messing with his phone though, selecting a different number. Damon raised his eyebrows.

Stefan got the implied question. “Jenna will expect Elena to be back,” he explained. “I’d better tell her. And Jeremy.”

Jenna was apparently a morning person, since she answered sounding bright and cheerful. Damon folded his arms and listened.

“Stefan, hey. Thanks for dropping off Elena last night.”

The surprise on his brother’s face mirrored his own exactly. Dropping off Elena? What? Had Elijah already compelled Jenna to think that everything was okay? But Elena had been careful to make sure that her aunt was ingesting vervain since Katherine had gotten to her, they both knew that. It didn’t make sense. Stefan stared at him, lost for words. Damon made a ‘c’mon!’ gesture at him, and his brother managed to muster up a reply.

“What?”

Not the most eloquent response in the world, but it did the job, he supposed.  
“I said, thanks for dropping off Elena. I didn’t see you, so I didn’t get a chance to say it then. What's up?”

Stefan swallowed. “Elena’s at home?”

“No, she just left for school.”

“Oh. Thank you.”

“Is something wrong?”

She was finally starting to pick up on the anxiety in Stefan’s voice. Damon heard all this in increasing bewilderment while Stefan made his excuses.

“No, no – I just left her a message and she didn’t get back to me, that’s all.”

“Well, she said she lost her phone so that probably explains it. I’m sure you can ask her at school.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I will.”

He was about to hang up when another voice interrupted in the background. “Is that Stefan? Can I talk to him?”

John Gilbert. Damon’s face darkened and his hand automatically tightened around the stake he was still holding. Twice now John had tried to get him killed. Most people didn’t survive a single attempt. But Stefan agreed when Jenna asked him to wait a moment, and Damon listened, still and attentive.

“You’re not gonna go all disapproving father, are you?” Jenna was saying. “Because I can tell you now, you have so not earned that.”

“No. Please, just give me a moment.”

There was a crackling sound as she handed the phone over. Stefan grimaced. “John?”

“Stefan, we need to talk.”

“About what?”

“Not over the phone. I need to speak to you in person.”

The entitlement in his tone rubbed Damon the wrong way. As if whatever John Gilbert had to say was a priority after the news they’d just heard. They’d get nothing useful out of him over the phone while Jenna was there either. Damon made impatient eyebrows at his brother, who took the hint.

“Later,” Stefan growled.

“It’s important.”

“Sorry, but I’m late for school.”

He hung up, rubbing his eyes as Damon stared at him, finally able to voice his sheer disbelief.

“Elena’s at school? At _school_?”

“I don’t know. But I’ll find out. Can you deal with John?”

Damon smirked. “With pleasure.”

After all, that was practically encouragement from his saintly brother to do whatever he liked with John. Damon could think of a few things.

*

  
The next morning, Elena faced an unexpected problem: she had no clothes. Her bloodied items had disappeared to be washed, leaving Elena in only her underwear. She opened the wardrobe to find it full of men’s clothes and bit her lip. There seemed to be an endless array of suits in there and not much else.

She pulled on a perfectly ironed ivory shirt, which hung off her small frame, rolled up the sleeves, then crouched down to search through a drawer.

“Good morning.”

She started, whipping around to face Elijah in the doorway. He stepped languidly towards her and she stood up, her back against the wardrobe. She felt cornered already; he was the predator approaching and she knew that he could close the distance between them in a second if he wanted to. But he didn’t. He stopped a safe distance away – and some part of her laughed at herself: _safe_ , no distance was safe, nothing about Elijah was safe. Their deal had been her safety net. All such illusions had evaporated the moment she’d lost it.

She licked her lips, managed a note of defiance. “I need my clothes.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Elijah. “You look quite fetching in my shirt.”

A shiver ran down her spine. His demeanour was quite different to the night before; he seemed relaxed, in control. There was that barely-there smile as he regarded her, looking her up and down. Elena swallowed.

“These are yours?”

“Who did you think they belonged to?”

She shook her head. “Where are my clothes?”

“I’ll have them brought up for you. Come downstairs when you’re ready and we can discuss the terms of your living arrangements.”

He turned, about to leave, when Elena stopped him. “Wait.”

“Yes?”

He was watching her, polite and expectant. It was all she could do not to tremble uncontrollably. She was so frightened. Frightened of him, frightened of what she was about to ask. If he’d killed her loved ones already... She didn’t know what she would do.

“I need to know. Stefan and Damon – are they still alive?”

“Yes, they are.”

“Please tell me you’re not going to kill them.”

“I can’t promise that,” he replied softly, and she felt her heart wrench.

“No,” she said, stepping forward, forgetting her current state of undress. “You can’t do that, Elijah – you can’t punish them for something I did. I was the one who betrayed you. Stefan and Damon made no promise to you. They were only trying to protect me.”

God, she hoped she’d judged that right. Stefan and Damon’s lives depended on it. She looked at him with wide pleading eyes and swallowed, realizing just how close he was now. It was as though the two of them were cocooned in this dark room and this was all that existed. Just this moment that she had to get right.

She couldn’t flinch. She held his gaze, conviction in her voice. “I wanted to work with you. I still do, but I can’t if you’re a threat to the people that I love.”  
“I don’t need you to be willing to co-operate.”

“You asked for my co-operation before.”

“And then you tried to kill me.”

Elena closed her eyes and sighed, before opening them again. “I’m sorry. I had to. I...”

She paused, words failing her. What else was there to say? If he didn’t want to strike a deal with her, then there was nothing she could do about it. But he was here. Listening. He was looking at her like... she didn’t know, but she felt it, almost physically. A lump rose in her throat and she shuddered, holding back tears. He probably didn’t care. Maybe he just wanted to watch her break down again and beg him for mercy.

She felt something soft brush her hand and looked down to see that Elijah was offering her a handkerchief.

“Come downstairs when you’re ready.”

He left her clutching the handkerchief, still trembling from their encounter. That was cruel, being kind like this. Taking everything from her and leaving her to dry her tears. It was cruel. But she steeled herself, determined not to leave him waiting for long. Every passing second more vervain disappeared from her system. She couldn’t give up.

*

  
Ah, school. Dwelling place of hormonal teenagers, haggard teachers and lots and lots of rules. There were layers and layers of them; not the silly ones like no running in the corridors, no talking back to teachers or smoking pot in the grounds. No, there were social rules to navigate too. She’d been studying; she knew who her friends were supposed to be, she’d dug out a timetable and been both surprised and amused to discover that Elena actually did her homework sometimes.

First period, she walked into the right classroom and swept her gaze over the students, assessing their arrangement with a practised eye. From the smiles and passing glances directed at her, she judged where she ought to sit and acted accordingly. She pretended to occupy herself by leaning down to pull a book out of her bag.

When she straightened up, she found Stefan sliding into the seat beside her. At once her expression brightened. Exactly who she’d hoped to see.

“Hey, Stefan.”

He looked bewildered. She gave him a little wave, fingers wriggling.

“Elena, what–”

“Shh.” She put a finger to her lips, smirking as she indicated the teacher who had just come in.

Perhaps she’d applied a little too much eye make-up this morning, or perhaps her expression gave her away. Whatever the reason, it was so much fun to watch the dawning realization in Stefan’s eyes when the penny dropped.

Katherine was back.

*

  
The house looked different in daylight. More normal. It was a silly thing to be surprised by, she supposed – where else would Elijah keep her? A haunted house? – but as Elena descended the stairs she noticed the photographs lining the hallway. A portrait that she recognized as a younger Mrs Roberts with her husband and three children. A man dressed in army uniform. Two identical girls with pigtails and frilly dresses. An awkward school photograph of a boy with crooked glasses and teeth; she recognized the Mystic Falls insignia.

This was someone’s home.

She’d known that too, but seeing the evidence around her made her feel like an intruder. Almost as if thinking about it had summoned her, Mrs Roberts appeared when she reached the bottom of the stairs, wispy-haired and more wrinkled than in her portrait.

“Would you like some breakfast, Elena?” she asked. “The kitchen’s this way.”

Elena followed her into the kitchen, where she was unsurprised to find Elijah waiting for her. He smiled as she entered, gesturing for her to sit down with him. In this environment, with Mrs Roberts’ presence as a buffer, she felt a little less nervous. And she was prepared. Elena had already decided what she wanted to say. She trembled as she sat down at the table opposite him, but she came straight out with it.

“You don’t need me to co-operate, fine, I won’t. I’ll do everything I can to make sure that your plan fails. If you do anything to hurt my friends, I swear, I will find a way to kill myself before Klaus gets anywhere near–”

“Do you like grapefruit juice?” Mrs Roberts asked, and Elena blinked several times before she found the presence of mind to answer.

“Yes, grapefruit juice is fine. Thank you.”

She wasted another minute or so being distracted by Mrs Roberts insisting that she have breakfast. Even though she knew the woman was compelled, Elena couldn’t be rude and refuse her. She felt Elijah’s eyes on her the whole time while he sipped his coffee and then he finally replied, very quietly.

“You won’t kill yourself.”

“Watch me,” she retorted, and stood up to prove it. All kitchens had knives; all she had to do was get hold of one… Of course, she’d barely taken a step towards one of the drawers before Elijah blocked her way.

“I won’t let you harm yourself, Elena.”

She didn’t shrink back. Instead, she leaned up to him and lifted her chin defiantly. “Then I’ll fight you every step of the way.”

“And how do you intend to do that?”

It was a good question, but she’d already thought of the answer. There was nothing she could do to hurt him. Nothing she could do to escape. He was both faster and stronger than her, but she could make herself an inconvenience. Distract him, force him to focus all his attention on her at least for the next couple of days. Then he couldn’t be out there killing anyone. She’d buy her friends some time.

She turned away, walking back around the table as though she intended to sit down again. Instead, she increased her pace, but she hadn’t quite made it to the kitchen entrance before Elijah appeared in front of her. Undeterred, Elena tried to go around him, knowing full well that she’d fail. His hand closed around her arm, stopping her in her tracks, but she pulled anyway.

“Elena.”

“Let me go!”

She struggled fruitlessly, grimacing as his grip tightened. She aimed a kick at him which did nothing but hurt her foot, and then another, twisting and curving her body as she tried to drag herself away from him. Jolts of pain burned up her shoulder; she knew it was her own resistance causing this but she didn’t care; she was going to _make_ him stop her.

Elijah endured this for only a couple of seconds before he twisted both her arms behind her back and held her against him. He felt utterly immovable, his grip on her impossible to budge. He’d wrapped an arm around her waist, in what felt like an oddly gentle embrace, but one she couldn’t escape from.

She froze as she felt his breath against her ear. “Elena, just because I need you alive doesn’t mean that I can’t hurt you. You can co-operate, and I promise that I will take good care of you for as long as you’re here. Or you can continue to behave in this difficult manner, and suffer the consequences.”

He could break every bone in her body without blinking. She knew that. She twisted to look at him, to meet the eyes of her captor only a few inches away. They were dark and unfathomable. “I don’t care. If I don’t get a guarantee that you won’t hurt my friends, I’m not co-operating. No matter what you do to me.”

“Very well.”

It all happened too fast for her to process. She felt a familiar swooping sensation in her stomach, had a vague impression of rooms blurring past her, then she was back in the bedroom and something cold and hard caught around her wrist. Metal. She was sitting on the floor, her back braced against the bed. She looked around, confused and scared.

He’d handcuffed her to the bed.

Elijah was standing only a few feet away, looking down at her with a frown. She felt a sudden mad urge to ask him where on earth he’d gotten the handcuffs from – just a typical item ancient Original vampires carried around? Maybe he’d popped in to visit the sheriff. Oh, God. She didn’t want to know.

“I’ll release you when you’ve come to your senses,” he told her. “Until then.”

Elena could do nothing but stare at him, stricken. She listened to his footsteps as he retreated from the room. All too quickly, the house became silent. She’d lost. She’d lost everything.

*

  
Class ended and Katherine slipped her hand into Stefan’s as they left the room. He shook her off as though she’d bitten him, glaring at her.

“Hey.” She glanced around at the other students and pouted. “We have to keep up appearances, Stefan.”

She started walking, taking care to imitate Elena’s graceless human gait. Stefan followed, as she had known he would. Katherine smiled to herself.

“How did you get out of the tomb?”

“Little known fact: an Original can compel another vampire, but if the Original dies, the compulsion wears off.” She spoke carelessly, as though she was revealing nothing of importance, but switched from a bored tone to a coy one as she smiled up at him. “Hey, don’t we have history together? You’ll have to show me the way; I’m a little lost...”

She weaved past a group of girls; a couple of them glanced over and greeted her. Katherine waved back but didn’t stop. Oh, this was too easy. She paused, put a finger to her mouth as she pretended to consider.

“Was it left here? Or straight ahead? So many corridors...”

“Katherine,” he said. “What are you doing here? Why are you pretending to be Elena?”

 _Oh, come on, Stefan_ , she thought. _It’s not like I haven’t been making it a hobby for the past few months._ She rolled her eyes and took a left turn, Stefan grim at her shoulder.

“You should be thanking me. Now you don’t have to explain Elena’s absence to Aunt Jenna.”

“I’m not joking, Katherine.”

“Neither am I.”

He sighed. She could deflect him all day, but Katherine decided to change tactic. She wanted Stefan to stay with her and the easiest way to do that was to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“Look,” she said, pausing to look at him, “I’m here to help you. I could have run, but I didn’t. We’re both on the same side; we both want Klaus and Elijah dead. So go with it. Take me to history. A whole world of learning awaits...”

She held out her arm, and Stefan took it reluctantly. Katherine nuzzled his shoulder, delighted. The game, she thought, was just beginning.

*

  
They met at the Grill. At this time of day, it was almost empty, which suited their purposes just fine. Damon slid into the seat opposite Alaric and spoke without preamble.

“Bad news, Ric. Elena’s gone. Elijah took her.”

He gave Alaric a moment to process this. Those were some deep creases forming on his forehead. For some reason, he looked confused rather than surprised. “But I saw her in class.”

Well, that explained it.

“That was Katherine.”

“Oh, God.”

“Yeah.”

“Katherine got out of the tomb.”

“Yep. And she’s taken her penchant for imitating Elena to a whole new level.”

“You’re kidding me.” He rubbed his eyes, and then Damon’s implication sank in. “Wait, what do you mean a whole new level?”

Damon spread his hands. “While the mouse is away...”

Alaric’s expression was horrified. “She was at the Gilbert house? With Jenna?”

He nodded. Stefan hadn’t said as much when he’d passed on the news, but Damon could work that one out for himself. It explained how Jenna thought that she had seen Elena and probably the reason John wanted to talk to them too. Apparently Katherine had decided to take full advantage of Elena’s absence. She had also tricked him with her ‘If you kill Elijah, I’ll be stuck in here forever’ speech. His mouth tightened at the thought. God, he should have seen that one coming.

Alaric shook his head. “We can’t let her stay there – Katherine made Jenna stab herself, remember?”

“I remember,” said Damon grimly. “If you want to stake the bitch, feel free.”

“I have to warn her.”

Alaric shoved his plate aside and fumbled for his wallet. As he slid the tab onto the table, Damon frowned.

“Where’s your ring?”

“I gave it back to John.”

“What?”

“Long story. He’s been dropping hints to Jenna about Isobel, so now she thinks I’m hiding something.” He gave a humourless laugh. “A couple minutes ago, I thought that was the biggest of my problems.”

This was enough for Damon. “Well, then. I'm due to pay John a visit anyway. Let’s go.”

He stood up, walking past without waiting for Alaric, who hastily shoved his wallet back into his pocket and followed him.

“Whoa, hey. What are you gonna do?”

*

  
It was strange, Bonnie thought, how so many times over the past few months she had wished that she could be a normal high school girl – and yet now that she effectively was, she hated it. Once you had magic, you couldn’t go back. She walked into school in a daze, shoulders hunched, avoiding the eyes of her classmates.

Caroline appeared to console her, and as the pair of them hugged, Bonnie reflected that one good thing had come out of losing her powers: she couldn’t feel the chill of death that lingered over every vampire. She didn’t think any of them realized just how unnatural that felt, how every passing second she was conscious of exactly what they were.

But Caroline was her friend and today she felt so warm and so human that Bonnie couldn’t help the tears leaking from her eyes.

Caroline hushed her. “It’s okay. We’ll fix this. It’s okay.”

She didn’t get why Bonnie was crying, and Bonnie didn’t have the heart to tell her. So she sniffed, wiped her eyes, and Caroline stayed with her, neglecting even her busy social calendar to chaperone her between classes.

She wouldn’t say it and Caroline wouldn’t say it, but what she really wanted to do was talk to Elena. Bonnie had texted her, but received no reply. And after first period, Elena had gone straight off with Stefan, so they hadn’t had a chance to catch up.

Speaking of...

Stefan hurried up to them, alone this time. Bonnie was about to ask him where Elena was when she saw his anxious expression. “We need to talk.”

His brow was furrowed; he looked deadly serious. The kind of serious that meant they had another supernatural crisis on their hands. Bonnie gave Caroline a look and they all congregated by the lockers while Stefan explained the situation. Elena had been kidnapped. The girl in class was Katherine.

“Oh my God,” Caroline breathed.

Bonnie couldn’t speak. Her friend, her best friend, had been kidnapped yet again, but this time she couldn’t do anything about it. And they’d worked so hard to stop Katherine being a threat, only to have it all undone in a moment. There was nothing she could do. She was powerless. She blinked as Caroline nudged her. Stefan was speaking.

“Bonnie, we have to find her,” he said. “Can you do a tracking spell?”

“I’m sorry.” She shook her head, mouth trembling. “I can’t. Please don’t tell Damon about this...”

It was their turn to explain. Stefan’s expression became grimmer and grimmer.

“Okay,” he said finally, “then we get your powers back, we just have to find Jonas or Luka...”

“They won’t help us. They hate us.”

“Then we make them if we have to.”

She had no idea how that would work, and looking at Stefan, she wasn’t sure if he did either. Jonas was powerful; she’d felt that. She hadn’t been able to fight back at all. At the time, she’d thought that it was his punishment for what she’d done to Luka, but now she understood. He’d made sure that she wouldn’t be able to find Elena.

“Are you sure they’re still here?” Caroline asked. “What if they left with Elijah?”

Stefan shook his head. “I don’t know. But keep an eye out for them. Oh, and if you see Jeremy, tell him – I haven’t been able to find him yet.”

“What are you gonna do?” Bonnie asked.

“Keep Katherine from causing trouble. Call me if you find Luka.”

He touched her shoulder lightly and nodded at Caroline before walking off. The two girls looked at each other.

Caroline bit her lip. “Should we start looking?”

“We’ll split up,” said Bonnie. “Cover more ground.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded. “I’m not afraid of him.”

“Neither am I. But Katherine...”

They were both scared of Katherine, Bonnie knew that. And while Katherine had left her alone since Stefan had told her to when she first appeared, she hadn’t done the same with Caroline. The apprehension on Caroline’s face was something awful to see. High school really shouldn’t be this dangerous.

“Stefan will take care of her,” she reassured Caroline. He was the only one who could, she thought. So they agreed, and parted ways. Elena was their priority. They couldn’t let Katherine distract them.

*

  
“Ugh, you’re still here.”

Jenna rolled her eyes in John’s general direction. It was pretty much the same greeting she’d used every day since he’d arrived. He hadn’t yet taken the hint.  
He poured hot water into his coffee and stirred. “Did you see Elena this morning?”

“Yeah, she left early for school. Probably because she didn’t want to see you.”

He sighed, something of a wry look passing across his face, but whatever. Elena didn’t like him and he knew it and Jenna didn’t care about reminding him. She grabbed her car keys and swung her bag over her shoulder. She was all ready to go; John could hang around and watch daytime TV or whatever he did with his time here.

“Going somewhere?”

“I have a seminar. I’ll be gone all day, so don’t wait up.”

John looked at her in that way he did when he was contemplating telling her something she wouldn’t like to hear. “You know, about Ric...”

She rolled her eyes, turning away. “I don’t wanna hear it, John. Save your weasel words for another day.”

She left, not without a glimmer of satisfaction as she made sure to slam the door shut. She was walking around to her car when her phone rang. Jenna smiled as she saw the caller ID.

“Elijah? Sure, I’d love to meet up.”

*

  
Despite everything she had learned today, it did feel better to have a mission. Bonnie’s stride became more purposeful; she paid attention to her surroundings rather than turning her eyes away from it. She scanned the crowded corridors, tuning out the noise, searching for only one face. If Luka was here somewhere, she was determined to find him.

She turned a corner and almost bumped into Elena.

“Hey, Bonnie.”

No. Not Elena. Even if Stefan hadn’t told her, Bonnie thought she might have realized something was off. She had the clothes and the hair right, but there was something taut about her smile that was unquestionably Katherine. I don’t need my powers to know what you are, Bonnie thought. She tried not to shiver as she faced the vampire. Katherine was alone; either she had slipped away from Stefan or he hadn’t found her yet. But Katherine didn’t know that she had lost her powers. And she wasn’t about to attack Bonnie in a crowded corridor.

“Katherine.”

“Elena,” Katherine corrected her. “Don’t blow our cover, Bonnie.”

She leaned in to touch her arm and Bonnie flinched away.

“Don’t touch me.” She fixed Katherine with an even glare, her voice steady. “For as long as you’re here, you and I have had a falling out. How’s that for a cover story?”

Clutching her books to her chest, Bonnie walked off, not looking back. She thought that she could feel the vampire staring after her and her heart was pounding, but Katherine didn’t pursue her.

She made it out to the courtyard at the front of the school. Life was going on as normal here, students playing basketball, hanging out in their respective groups, talking, laughing, hurrying to their next class... It felt almost surreal. None of them knew that their school was a hotbed of supernatural activity. She breathed a sigh of relief. Then she glimpsed a familiar back. Luka.

Bonnie fumbled for her phone.


	3. Unwanted Alliances

Caroline always prided herself on her ability to find out things. Information, gossip, rumours: you name it, she had it. Now with vampire hearing, she was even better at finding out what other people didn’t want her to know. That included tracking down a person who didn’t want to be found.

Which was why she was frustrated at her lack of success in finding Luka. She’d tried all her usual sources but they’d been more of a hindrance than a help, distracting her with talk of the next fundraiser, the school committee, Tyler’s disappearance and a hundred and one other things that she would have been interested in before she knew that her friend had been kidnapped.

When she finally managed to escape, she slipped into an empty classroom and heaved a sigh of relief. Maybe from here she could listen and pick up Luka’s voice if he was anywhere nearby...

The door was open before she could react and suddenly Katherine was standing right in front of her.

“Caroline,” she purred, stroking a thumb down Caroline’s cheek. “I’ve missed you.”

Katherine had her in an all-too-familiar choke hold at once, slamming her up against the wall. Caroline whimpered, unable to hide her fear. Katherine brought out the most primal of her emotions: pure, raw terror. Every line of her body was cold and merciless – her vice-like grip, the slightest tilt of her head as her pupils dilated, like a snake about to strike.

“You’ve been avoiding me, Caroline. I’m hurt. Where’s my werewolf?”

She felt light-headed. “Your werewolf?”

“Yes. Tyler.” Katherine tightened her grip for a moment, eliciting a choked sob from Caroline. “Doesn’t he attend this school?”

“He’s not here. He... disappeared.”

“Dead?”

“No. Look, all I know is that he left a note for his mom. He chose to leave.”

“Well, that’s inconvenient.” Katherine let go and stepped back, placing one hand on her hip. “Tell me more. What have I missed?”

*

  
Alaric lifted his hand to knock, but Damon gave him a look and barged straight in there. He had already pinpointed John’s exact location, so it was but the work of a moment to appear right in front of John, smile coldly at his startled yelp and back him up against the kitchen counter. He sensed Alaric following, and waited for him to find his way to the kitchen before speaking.

“John,” Damon greeted him. “I hear you got your fancy magical ring of not dying back.”

John’s eyes flicked to Alaric, then back to him again. Damon was itching to bite him; only the knowledge that John ingested vervain prevented him from doing so.

He was an inch from John’s nose and yet somehow the other man feigned nonchalance. “What of it?”

“Well, that’s good,” said Damon. “That’s great. Because I have been eagerly awaiting another chance to do this.”

The next second, he had snapped John’s neck and the body had slumped down at his feet. It was a moment of catharsis. He found that his fists were clenched and took a few deep breaths, uncurling his fingers until the tension left his body. Then he stepped back and turned to regard Alaric, who sighed.

“You realize we’re gonna have to wait around for him to wake up, right?”

He shrugged. “It was worth it. Scotch?”

“I’ll have a double.”

*

  
“Where’s Elena?”

Luka shook his head. “Why are you asking me? I saw you with her earlier.”

They’d cornered him outside, not far from the football field. Bonnie was keeping watch to make sure that no one noticed if it got a little violent.

“Don’t lie to me,” Stefan growled. “Elijah has her. Where is she?”

“I don’t know.”

Stefan grabbed him, pulling him up by his jacket so that Luka’s feet left the ground for a moment, causing him to gasp for breath. “I don’t know, I swear! Do you think Elijah tells me everything? He wouldn’t tell me where he’s keeping Elena. He knows you guys are looking for her.”

He was looking from Stefan to Bonnie, his eyes wide and fearful, and Bonnie couldn’t help feeling a twinge of sympathy for him. He was doing this to help his sister. But she was doing this for Elena.

“Please, Luka,” Bonnie implored him. “She’s my friend.”

“You’re a witch,” said Stefan. “If you don’t know where she is, you can do a spell to find her. Or help Bonnie get her powers back so that we can find her ourselves.”  
Luka shook his head, looking only at Bonnie this time. “I’m sorry. But I won’t help you.”

All at once, Stefan reeled back, clutching his head. Bonnie stared, realizing with sudden horror that she couldn’t feel Luka’s magic. She couldn’t sense anything, couldn’t counteract the spell. But she wasn’t entirely helpless.

“Stop it!” Bonnie grabbed his arm. “Stop!”

He shrugged her off. “Just stay away from me.”

Luka strode off, leaving Bonnie to crouch down and help Stefan up.

*

  
“Later,” Katherine cooed, pushing her back into the corridor. It was quieter now as people headed for class, but there were still several students around. Caroline gave her the filthiest look she could manage as Katherine walked off. Her throat still felt sore. She massaged it gingerly and took a few deep breaths, trying to compose herself.

It was then that she noticed one of the guys at the lockers was Matt. He’d seen her too.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” Caroline managed weakly.

“Are you okay?” he asked, glancing back at Katherine’s retreating figure. “What’s up with you and Elena?”

Oh God, she didn’t need this. “It’s... complicated.”

She couldn’t meet his eyes as she said it, but she heard the disappointment in his voice.

“Complicated, huh.”

“Yeah...” She tried to think of an excuse to leave. Late for class would do. She opened her mouth, but he beat her to it.

“Hey, I wanted to ask, have you heard from Tyler?”

“Not a peep.”

That much was true. She’d tried calling, texting, but considering the situation right now, maybe it was better that he had gone. At least, that’s what her head told her. She still hadn’t really processed it.

“Me either. I saw him at the Grill last night, before he left.”

She was curious despite herself. Tyler had left without saying a word to her – granted, she’d slammed the door in his face when he came to talk to her, but he totally deserved that.

“What did he say?”

“I think he was saying goodbye without really saying goodbye. Why, is there something you want to tell me, Caroline?”

She couldn’t miss the accusing tone in his voice. He was right, she thought miserably. There were so many things she wanted to tell him. About Tyler, about everything.

“No. Look, there’s just a lot going on...”

There was a pause, and then Matt shrugged. “Can I help?”

Even now he was reaching out to her. He had no idea what he was offering, no idea what she was keeping from him, but he was still Matt. Still the good guy. And she couldn’t tell him.

“It’s kind of between me, Bonnie and Elena.”

“Well, I’m sorry. I hope you guys can work it out. I could talk to Elena if–”

“No!” She realized at once that she’d said it too forcefully. His eyes widened and he stared at her, baffled. She shook her head. “No, I mean... I really don’t think that’s a good idea, Matt. She won’t appreciate it, trust me.”

He sighed. “Elena and I are friends. If this is your jealousy thing again–”

“No. I swear that’s not it. I – I can’t explain, but promise me you’ll stay away from her, please?”

“Seriously? If you’re not going to say what it is, I’m not going to make any promises. Look – I’m just – I’m tired of the secrets, okay? I’ve made my feelings pretty clear, Caroline. So either say something or just leave me alone.”

Her mouth trembled as she tried to think of something to say. Tears clustered at her eyes. She’d blown it. But she stayed silent. She only had to wait a couple of seconds before Matt walked away.

*

  
Sunlight filtered through the blinds, casting a bright glow over the normally dim apartment. Elijah gazed through the window, considering all the loose ends he needed to tie up. There was the matter of the dagger, which he would question Damon about when he found him, as well as the burial ground. There were the other guests at the dinner party, all of whom had varying degrees of involvement in killing him. The women he considered to be innocent, but the rest... And there was Katerina. The moment he had died, she would have been free to escape and he had no idea of her current whereabouts.

He had Elena, yet his problems seemed to have multiplied tenfold. Even Elena seemed to have made it her goal in life to cause him problems. He smiled slightly. Of course she had. He’d seen how determined she was, but she was also spirited. Klaus would have taken pleasure in breaking her down, he thought. They had been gentle with Katerina only because they were deceiving her. Even then, he had been unable to see Katerina as a toy. He’d spent too much time with her, allowed himself to feel for her; old memories had slipped in, colouring the way he looked at her... They looked the same. And because of that, he had allowed his emotions to override his judgement.

He would not, could not, make that same mistake with Elena.

Jonas brought him coffee, which he accepted with a thank you, and both men sat down to talk. He’d stayed here for a few days before abducting Elena. So Elijah had some things to collect, but more importantly he needed to catch up with Jonas.

Jonas folded his arms, expression stern as Elijah filled him in what had happened since last night. Elijah didn’t tell him where Elena was and Jonas didn’t ask; he understood the value of discretion. He was also reliable, patient, trustworthy and a powerful warlock, all qualities which made him ideal to work with. His only weakness, if it could be called that, was his son.

Elijah brought the subject up after they had discussed the main points of business. “Where’s Luka?”

“School.”

“You should remove him from that school at once. Since the Bennett girl lost her powers, he’s certain to become a target.”

Jonas frowned. “The Salvatore brothers? Haven’t you dealt with them yet?”

“They may know where the burial ground is. For now, I need them alive.”

They would not give up such information willingly, of course. But if he threatened one, the other would capitulate. He’d visited the boarding house briefly before coming to the apartment, and found it empty. The remains of their dinner party had been left untouched, plates and cutlery still on the table, dessert left to go warm in the kitchen. They had probably gone into hiding. He would consider other ways to find them later.

Jonas sighed and leaned back, taking off his reading glasses and cleaning them with a soft yellow cloth. He was surrounded by books – or rather, grimoires, the body of knowledge that he had spent his life studying. Yet all that knowledge had failed him when it came to locating the land where the witches had burned.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“No,” said Elijah, “but we have exhausted almost all other sources. They lived here while still human; they have firsthand knowledge of the history of this town.” He glanced at his watch. “I have to go. I have a date.”

Jonas raised his eyebrows.

“My other potential source,” Elijah clarified. “The delectable Miss Sommers.”

“Isn’t she Elena’s aunt?”

Elijah stood, leaving his half-finished coffee on the table. “That won’t be a problem.” He’d compel her if necessary, but he suspected that the Salvatore brothers would do the job for him to stop her from noticing that Elena was missing. Either that or he was about to have a very interesting conversation with her.

He walked over to the door, then paused to add a final warning: “Get your son out of that school.”

Jonas nodded. “I will. Those vampires won’t get anything out of us.”

*

  
Damon was there the moment John awoke. He tried to scrabble backwards, but Damon lifted him up easily and none too gently, not giving him a chance to recover.

John's pupils were dilated; his breath came shallow and fast. “You killed me.”

“Mmm-hmm. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you just try to get me killed? Again?”

John said nothing.

“So now that we're even, why don’t you give that ring back to Ric?”

“Why do you care?”

Now there was a loaded question. Loathe as he was to admit that he cared about anything, Damon knew exactly what he wanted to say here. If this didn’t make up for lying to Alaric about killing Elijah at the dinner party, he figured nothing would.

“Well, you see – the thing is, John, you're not part of the team. And Ric, for better or worse, is. Since we’re all running the risk of death at the hands of a really pissed off Original, I know who I’d rather come back. Hand it over.”

He released John and stepped back, watching him with a barely suppressed tension: the predator about to strike. John took the hint. He removed the ring and placed it down on the counter, then watched as Alaric walked over to take it.

Damon relaxed only when the ring was on Alaric’s finger. Then he allowed himself a smile. Alaric glanced over at him.

“Thanks, man.”

“Those werewolves got you only the other day, Ric. You shouldn’t have handed it over in the first place.” He turned back to John. “So, you wanted to talk to my baby bro. Katherine, I presume?”

*

  
This was possibly the weirdest lunch Caroline had ever had. _Here we are_ , she thought. _The freak show table._ Three vampires, a witch who had lost her powers, and Jeremy. Stefan and Katherine were sitting opposite her, Katherine insisting on draping herself all over Stefan, nudging his arm, stroking his cheek and generally being very touchy-feely. Caroline was crammed in next to Bonnie and Jeremy. She couldn’t help but notice the protective arm he’d placed around her shoulder. So that happened.

_And I’m the only one who’s single._

“How can she even be here?” Jeremy was saying, late to the party.

They were surrounded by other students in the cafeteria. If Caroline concentrated, she could pick up any conversation at any table. Yet she felt as though they were in a bubble, the five of them. Elena was missing, and nobody else knew it.

Katherine twisted an iron-straight lock of hair around her finger. “So, what’s the plan?”

Bonnie was the first to respond. “I’m not discussing anything with you.” She gave Stefan a pointed look. “Can you please get her out of here?”

Stefan sighed and shook his head. They all knew that they couldn’t cause a scene.

“Oh, I forgot, we’ve fallen out,” said Katherine. “But let’s at least call a temporary truce, hmm? Seriously? What are you gonna do?”

“We have to find Elena,” said Jeremy.

“Luka’s not talking,” said Stefan.

“Not to mention, Elijah has her and he’ll kill you the second you get anywhere near her,” Katherine added.

“We need to go to Jonas,” Stefan continued, as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “Get him to find Elena.”

Katherine raised her eyebrows, staring around at them all. “Have I missed something? You have a witch. Why look for another one who’s not going to help you?”

There was a short silence. Everyone except Katherine knew that Bonnie had lost her powers. Bonnie had asked Stefan not to tell Damon; it went without saying that they wouldn’t tell Katherine. Caroline ducked her head, sure that her face would give her away if Katherine met her eyes.

“They’re blocking me,” said Bonnie, gazing back at Katherine evenly. “I tried to find her, but they’re hiding Elena’s location.”

“So we find Jonas,” Stefan went on. “There’s still a chance to reason with them now that Elijah has the dagger. He wants Klaus dead; so do we. Maybe we can call a truce.”

“And Elena doesn’t have to die,” said Bonnie.

Stefan nodded. “Exactly.”

“I’ll go,” said Jeremy.

He was immediately met by protests from both Stefan and Bonnie. Katherine only smirked, watching Jeremy with a lascivious glint in her eyes that looked so wrong coming from someone with Elena’s face. Caroline looked down and stirred her milkshake, which she hadn’t touched. It wasn’t blood. She didn’t feel like drinking it.

“You can’t get into the apartment,” Jeremy was arguing. “I can. She’s my sister. I’m going and you can’t stop me.”

Eventually, Stefan gave in. “All right, but I’m coming with you. Bonnie, you in?”

Bonnie nodded. Nobody objected to her going, Caroline noticed. But then if Jonas was going to give her back her powers, she kind of had to be there.

“So what about me?” Caroline asked. “Is there anything I can do?”

She studiously avoided looking Katherine in the eye as she said that.

“Just lie low for now,” Stefan advised her. “We’ll keep you posted.”

She nodded. Honestly, she was kind of relieved that he hadn’t asked her to watch Katherine. Of course, Stefan knew that was the last thing she’d want. He wouldn’t ask her to do that. She smiled at him, glad that at least Stefan always had her back.

“And me?” said Katherine, inching her fingers along the line of Stefan’s collarbone. He swatted her away.

“You are not going to do anything.”

She shrugged. “Oh, well. Guess I’ll just go home after school then. Grab some dinner. Maybe Aunt Jenna’s free for a bite.”

“Don’t you dare.” Jeremy leaned forward across the table and had to be restrained by Bonnie. Katherine did not even try to hide her amusement.

Stefan sighed. “I’m calling Damon. He can deal with you. I’ve had enough.”

Katherine’s smirk widened; there was a definite glint in her eye that Caroline could tell meant Damon was not going to have an easy time with her. “I look forward to it.”

All in all, Caroline reflected, this was definitely the weirdest lunch she’d ever had. As they went their separate ways, she considered telling her mom that Elena had gone missing. But there was no way she could report that with Katherine hanging around. Not without confessing everything. She bit her lip. For now, she’d just have to wait.

*

  
If there was one thing Damon didn’t like, it was feeling unsafe in his own home. He was a vampire. He hunted down his prey, got himself invited in so that they’d never feel safe in their beds again, and then killed them. He didn’t cower in fear of some monster that might rip his head off.

Except, of course, that he’d just tried and failed to kill an Original. Twice. And the Salvatore boarding house had no living owner, so any vampire could get in.

It was therefore with a degree of caution that Damon entered the house. All his senses were on alert, listening for the smallest hint of movement. Everything looked the same: dim and dark. He was annoyed to find that the leftover food in the kitchen had already started to smell, so disposed of it swiftly. Deciding that Elijah would have gotten him by now if he was here, Damon sped up to his bedroom. He had just opened the wardrobe when his phone rang. Stefan.

“Did you find her?”

“No.” There was a pause. “Bonnie tried. It didn’t work.”

“What?” Jesus, all they asked for was a witch to do a simple tracking spell... He rolled his eyes, riffling through his clothes with one hand while he held his phone to his ear with the other. “So try again.”

“That’s not gonna work. Bonnie thinks it’s those other witches, the Martins, concealing Elena’s location. We’re going to talk to them.”

“Talk? Stefan, please tell me you’re not planning to negotiate. If those witches are stopping us from finding Elena, we kill them. Simple.”

“If we do that, we might never find her. Killing them won’t remove the spell – you know how that works.”

He didn’t, and he suspected that Stefan knew that. All those rules of magic. Damon was convinced half of them were made up. “Witches. Fine, you deal with man witch and son. What about Katherine? What’s she up to?”

“I don’t know. Can you take care of her for a while? I don’t know what game she’s playing, but if she goes back to the house with Jenna...”

He picked a clean shirt out of the wardrobe before discarding it and choosing another. “I’m on it. Leave Katherine to me.”

“Don’t provoke her,” Stefan warned.

“What, do you think I’m an idiot? Just shut up and go, Stefan.”

He hung up, suddenly in a bad mood. He’d learned nothing from the conversation with John earlier except that John was an ass (old news) and that John was very good at demanding answers – on Elena’s whereabouts, on their failure to kill Elijah – without offering any himself (also old news). And now Katherine. If he was going to deal with her today, he needed a drink first.

*

  
“This is it?” Stefan looked at Bonnie. She nodded in confirmation.

“This is the one.”

“Stand back.”

They obeyed, Jeremy standing on one side of the corridor and Bonnie on the other, both of them looking around in case anyone came up here and saw them. Stefan took two steps back, then blurred forward and hit the door with his shoulder, sending it flying into the room at once. The crash it made seemed to reverberate in their ears; Bonnie winced.

Stefan gestured for them to go inside. He couldn’t enter.

“Be careful,” he said.

Bonnie nodded. She took one look at Jeremy, then they both stepped inside. The apartment was just as she remembered. It was the books that had most struck her; the place was full of them. Luka had told her that the Martins collected them. She couldn’t help but wonder if they were stolen. What had happened to the witches who used to own them?

“Looks empty,” said Jeremy, who had already walked over to check the adjacent rooms.

“They wouldn’t leave without taking the grimoires,” said Bonnie. She paused at a desk on which a grimoire lay open, its yellowed pages covered in spidery writing. Maybe there was a spell in one of these that would restore her powers – but they’d still need a witch to cast it.

She turned the page and stared at an intricate diagram, aware once more of what she had lost. Witchcraft was more than just a few trinkets and recited words. It was bone-deep, part of who she was; she felt lesser without it. Like her surroundings had been dulled; like she’d had a limb cut off. She was blind.

Jeremy reappeared again, startling her when he touched her arm. “I’ve checked the whole place. They’re not here. So now what?”

Bonnie looked up at Stefan, trapped outside the door. He’d shifted suddenly, on the alert.

“Someone’s coming!”

She moved closer to Jeremy instinctively, grasping his hand, and even in the urgency of the moment Jeremy found time to glance at her and smile. She squeezed his hand.

“Is it them?”

Her question was answered by Stefan’s cry of pain. For the second time that day, he clutched his head and sank down to the ground, and a few moments later two figures stepped over his prone form. Jonas Martin stared at them, Luka at his shoulder.

“You shouldn’t have come here.”

“Doctor Martin,” said Bonnie, sounding braver than she felt. “I’ve come to ask for you to give me my powers back.”

“Well, you’re wasting your time. Leave.”

“You can’t do this,” said Jeremy. “It’s not right.”

His face darkened. “After what you did to my son? And today at school, you and that vampire threatened Luka again, and you still think you have any right to ask for anything from me?”

“I’m sorry about that,” said Bonnie, “truly, I am, but we needed information and we still do – we have to find Elena–”

“Get out,” said Jonas, “before I make you.”

His tone brooked no argument. Bonnie glanced pleadingly at Luka, but he said nothing, his expression as grim as his father’s. She tried one final time.

“We don’t have to be enemies. The only reason we were before is because your plan involved killing Elena, but that doesn’t need to happen now. We can call a truce, work out a way to use the dagger together...”

Behind the witches, Stefan was recovering. Bonnie saw him stand up; throw himself against the invisible barrier that prevented him from entering. But he was out there. There was little he could do.

“Jonas,” Stefan panted. “She’s right. We’re not your enemies. Let us help you. Just give us Elena, that’s all we want, Elena.”

Jonas glanced back at Stefan, his expression turning to disgust. Luka looked nervous.

“Out,” said Jonas. “Now!”

As he spoke, the broken door lifted up and flew towards them as though it had been thrown like a javelin. Bonnie threw herself out of the way with a cry, taking Jeremy with her. Jonas was advancing upon them, and she didn’t need to have her powers to sense the magic surging around him; she tugged at Jeremy’s arm and both of them fled. The moment they exited the apartment, the door slammed back into its rightful place, blocking them out.

The three of them stared at each other, breathless.

Negotiating had failed.


	4. Tactics

When Elijah returned, he found Elena curled up on his bed, asleep. She’d scrunched up the covers to make a pillow, her right arm hanging down where she was handcuffed to the bed post. He could see the traces of tears on her face; she looked anxious even in repose, mouth tight, eyes squeezed shut as if to close out the waking world.

He wondered what troubled her dreams. If she wasn’t on vervain, he could have slipped into her mind and looked – but even if he could, there was no need. It was easy to guess.

Unbidden, a pang of regret tugged at his long-dead heart. He hadn’t felt regret in such a long time; he almost savoured it, taking a moment to let it seep through his bones as he looked at her.

She brought out so many old feelings.

“Elena.”

She stirred, limbs stretching out, blinking sleepily as she lifted her head and noticed that something was restraining her arm. He caught the precise moment that she remembered her situation: when she saw the glint of the metal circling her wrist, then turned to see him sitting next to her. She drew up her legs with impressive speed, scrabbling to move away from him. He could hear the frantic beating of her heart; see the fear in her eyes that she quickly masked with defiance.

The regret stayed with him.

“What do you want?” she muttered.

“I’ve come to see if you’ve changed your mind.”

“Have you changed your mind about killing my friends?”

“No.”

“Then I haven’t changed mine.”

She was incredibly stubborn. Elijah considered her for a moment. “You must be hungry. And thirsty, of course.”

He’d instructed Mrs Roberts not to go into the room, which meant that Elena hadn’t eaten or drank since the night before. She didn’t need to be in good condition to be useful and she wasn’t; apart from the physical strain, he could see that her emotional anxiety had taken its toll on her.

But Elena only shrugged. “So?”

“I don’t wish to starve you.”

“Well, you’re doing a good impression of it.”

He sighed. There was clearly no use in prolonging her suffering; she was much too wilful for that. Standing up, Elijah moved over and leaned down to grasp her hand. She recoiled, but then watched him silently as he met her eyes before removing the handcuffs. Dark sores marked her wrist where the cuffs had bitten into her. She didn’t move. Elijah lifted her hand, examining the injury.

“You truly are a glutton for punishment.”

He let go, standing back, and she immediately withdrew, flexing her wrist and cradling it on her other arm.

“Are they dead?” she asked, and her voice sounded dead, devoid of any inflection.

“Are you going to ask me that every time you see me?”

“Yes.”

“No, they’re not. And there’s a good reason for that, Elena; I want them alive in the foreseeable future. For now, they’re safe.”

She looked up at him then, hope flaring in her eyes. “You want them alive? Why?”

“To fill in the next piece of the puzzle,” he replied briskly. “I’ll tell you more at dinner.”

“Dinner?”

“Yes, dinner. You look famished.”

*

  
Katherine twirled the remote control idly in her hand. “Hello, Damon. I’m surprised you’re not frantically looking for Elena. Everyone else is.”

She occupied the house like she actually owned it: he entered the living room to find her sprawled out on the couch, long limbs askew, flicking through TV channels at random.

He narrowed his eyes. “Someone has to make sure you behave.”

Katherine grinned up at him. “Ooh, what are you gonna do if I don’t? Ground me? If I’m really naughty, you could send me to my room...”

“Or I could stake you.”

His voice was flat and cold. He walked over and leaned over the back of the couch, but glowering at her had no effect. She rolled her eyes, shrugged, dismissing him with a flick of her hand.

“You can’t stay, Damon. You think Jenna’s gonna let you stay over?”

“Katherine, Elijah’s been invited into this house. And he’s still alive. Are you sure you want to stay over?”

“He’s been invited in?”

For the first time, she looked unsure. He’d guessed it right. John hadn’t told her about that, if he was even aware of it.

“Yep.”

“You’re lying.”

“Unlike you, Katherine, not every word that comes out of my mouth is a lie.”

She was silent for a moment. Then in one graceful movement, she sat up and faced him, leaning in to place her hands on his chest. “Has he been invited into Caroline’s house too? We could have a sleepover.” Her hands crept up to his shoulders, pulling him forward. “I’d let you join us.”

Damon swallowed. He couldn’t help it. There was still something about her that got to him. The corners of her mouth tugged into a smile, her eyes dark and glinting with the promise of seduction. Everything about Katherine was a promise. She was feline in her grace and beauty, every movement lithe and sinuous, and her soft drawl drew him in, always the promises, the whisper of temptation.

“I think we need to have a conversation first,” he said.

She’d tricked him with the dagger. That was all he needed to remember to break her spell. He jerked free, moving back until he was well out of her reach. Katherine folded her arms over the top of the couch and watched him.

“You knew I was going to use the dagger to kill Elijah. So why didn’t you warn me that it would have killed me?”

Katherine’s face was the picture of innocence. “So many rules to remember. Guess it slipped my mind.”

That was far too casual to be true. It hurt, like she’d stabbed him in the heart yet again; and Damon wanted to retort, but before he could reply, they both heard movement outside. She turned, alert at once. He recognized the voices: Alaric and Jenna.

“We have company,” said Katherine. In a flash, she had blurred out of the room. Damon grimaced before following.

*

  
“Jenna, thank God.”

Alaric was there on her porch the moment she got out of her car. He looked weirdly jittery; like he’d spotted a venomous snake but now he didn’t know where it was. Jenna folded her arms, unimpressed. “Were you waiting for me the whole day?”

“No – look, I really need to talk to you.”

“Really.”

“Can we go somewhere? I could take you out, or we could go back to my apartment...”

Was he serious? Last night he’d stood in her kitchen and not said a word about what had happened to Isobel – which only confirmed that he was keeping things from her. She didn’t know what. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know what, but Jenna knew one thing: she had been burned too many times by boyfriends keeping secrets. She didn’t want to go through that again.

“I don’t have any desire to go anywhere with you right now, Ric.”

“Jenna–”

They were interrupted by Elena appearing at the door. She glanced at Alaric, who had frozen, then leaned over to Jenna.

“Jenna, are you coming inside? I need to talk to you.”

Alaric actually stepped forward and grabbed her arm. “Don’t.”

There was an urgency in his voice and a fear in his eyes that she didn’t understand. What the hell was he playing at? She shrugged him off angrily.

“Go home, Ric.” She stepped inside as Elena held the door open for her. “I have other things to be getting on with.”

“Don’t look so worried, Mr Saltzman,” Elena added. “I’ll take good care of her.”

She caught one last glimpse of Alaric before Elena shut the door in his face. He looked stricken. Psychology degree notwithstanding, sometimes Jenna just did not understand men. And she wasn’t in the mood to psychoanalyse anyway.

She dumped her bag in the hallway and sighed. “That was so not what I needed today. What’s up?”

“Speaking of unwanted house guests...”

Jenna frowned. Did she mean John? God knew she wasn’t looking forward to seeing him either. John was an ex-boyfriend she couldn’t throw out of the house. But as she followed Elena inside, she realized her mistake.

“Damon, hi. What are you doing here? Where’s Stefan?”

Damon schooled his face into a smile that didn’t look at all genuine. He was leaning against the door that led into the living room; it looked as though he’d been watching them from the hallway all this time.

“Stefan’s busy,” he said. “We’re just hanging out, thought we might watch a movie...”

Elena threw her a significant look. “Actually, Damon was just leaving.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“Yes, you were.”

Jenna stared. More psychology degree failure here: she didn’t get these two either. Damon was in and out often enough that they seemed to be good friends – something which had gotten more complicated after she’d witnessed Damon kissing her. Elena had assured her that it had been a mistake, but she hadn’t explained the specifics. It was difficult not to like Damon in spite of all that, but Jenna had a well-known weakness for guys like him. Even the good guys turned out to be hiding something, she thought bitterly, Alaric being a case in point.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

“No,” said Damon, at the same time as Elena said, “Yes.”

They glared at each other; the tension was palpable. Jenna wondered if she’d walked in to the middle of an argument.

“I want you to leave, Damon,” Elena added. “Now.”

“Elena,” he said tightly.

“I said now.”

“If she wants you to leave, I think you should leave,” said Jenna, stepping in. Elena obviously wanted her for back-up. She wasn’t going to let her niece be pushed around by her boyfriend’s older brother.

Damon turned his eyes on her and Jenna almost shuddered; there was something dark and predatory about him, something menacing just in the way his expression shifted. A second later it had passed; he shrugged and walked past her, heading for the door.

“See you later,” he said.

Jenna and Elena both turned to watch him go. As soon as he had, Jenna heaved a sigh of relief.

“What was that about?”

Elena rolled her eyes. “Long story.”

*

  
“That little bitch,” Alaric muttered. “Now what?”

Damon heartily agreed with this sentiment, but he was still smarting from Katherine’s betrayal. So he feigned indifference, arms folded as he leaned against the porch.

“Well, we could go to the bar, play darts and get raging drunk... Or I could watch the house. If Katherine makes one wrong move, I’ll stake her.”

They were standing outside Elena’s house, having both been kicked out. Or in Alaric’s case, not invited in at all. Alaric glanced back at the window, through which they could see precisely nothing, and shook his head.

“I can’t believe she’s in there with Jenna.”

“John too, don’t forget. I hope she hurts him.”

That didn’t even get Ric to crack a smile. Damon saw his expression and did his best attempt to console him by slapping him on the shoulder. “Look, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Katherine may be an evil, lying, manipulative slut – but she’s smart. If she’s pretending to be Elena, killing Jenna won’t be on her agenda.”

“You sure about that?”

He shrugged. “Just go home, Ric.”

In truth, he had no idea what Katherine was up to. The little bitch had outmanoeuvred him yet again and she was daring him to do something about it. Getting raging drunk was sounding more and more like a good idea.

*

  
Jenna slumped down into the couch with another sigh. She felt she’d earned it. Elena curled up next to her, tossing a cushion out of the way. The TV was on, but for background noise. Jenna wanted to know what had been going on with Damon.

Elena shrugged. “He can be really overbearing sometimes. Pushy, you know.”

“Pushy like how? He’s not... trying to force you into anything, is he?”

Even voicing the thought was worrying. She trusted Elena; she felt more like a friend or younger sister than a daughter, but in the end she was still under Jenna’s protection.

“No, it’s not like that. He’s just really needy and pathetic.”

Jenna had plenty of history to commiserate with in that department. “Clingy? Those guys are the worst.”

“Tell me about it. Thanks for getting rid of him.”

“Well, that’s what I’m here for. Jenna Sommers, scaring off hot guys since... oh, high school, probably. Maybe earlier.”

Elena laughed. “What about that dinner party you went to last night? No hot date there?”

“Oh, Damon told you about that? Well, Alaric was there but you know how that went. Elijah was there – the writer, you remember him?”

“Yes, I do.” Elena raised an eyebrow. “You’d prefer him as your hot date?”

“Mmm, maybe.”

“I can see the appeal. So do you think you’ll see him again? Did you get his number?”

“Already have it. Only on an official, professional basis, of course. Actually... I saw him again today.”

Elena’s eyes gleamed with interest. “Today? When?”

“He met me for lunch. Said he was interested in finding out more about the Historical Society’s work... But that is twice in two days now that I think about it. What do you think, am I reading into it?”

She second guessed herself sometimes. Elijah was charming, yes, and she would have been interested if she was single... _Well, I am now_ , she thought. _Even if dating him would be a total rebound relationship._

“Hmm.” Elena sat up a little, her expression thoughtful. She tilted her head. “Has he been here? Inside the house?”

Jenna frowned. “Yeah. You know that, Elena, that’s when you met him, remember?”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry, I just – forgot for a moment. He’s still staying in Mystic Falls, then? I thought he was just visiting for a little while.”

“I guess so. I didn’t ask.”

“Well, maybe you should. Now that Alaric is out of the running.”

She scowled at the mention of Alaric. “Yeah. It’s just this whole Isobel thing. He’s hiding something from me.” She made a frustrated sound. It was driving her crazy. What with John whispering in her ear and Alaric closing off every time she brought the subject up... Well, if John had tried to drive a wedge between them, it had worked. There was something going on though, she knew that. Alaric would have dismissed John instantly if there wasn’t.

“Isobel, huh?” Elena shook her head. “So the history teacher is keeping secrets. What do you think it is?”

“I don’t know. Something bad, if he won’t tell me. She’s your mom too. Whatever it is, we have a right to know.”

“I know what’ll make this better.” Elena sat up and grinned. “Nachos?”

Jenna grinned back. This was why they got on so well. Elena always knew how to make things better.

*

  
He gave her some time to get ready before dinner. Elena used the bathroom, bandaged her sore wrist and then paused with the bathroom cabinet open, wondering if there might be some sleeping pills in there. She soon discovered that if there ever had been, there weren’t any now.

 _101 ways for the doppelgänger to commit suicide_ , she thought, and almost laughed. Stefan had called her a martyr. He’d wanted her to fight. So that was what she was doing now: fighting. Refusing to compromise with Elijah, refusing to let him use her. He had no right to take her life to kill another, no right to expect her to be docile while he murdered her friends.

So she had thought, earlier in the day when she had raged at being restrained, pulled and tugged at her handcuffs until her wrist was red-raw. She had tried moving the bed too, but it was a sturdy four poster, large and heavy, and common sense told her that even if she dragged it over to the door, she wouldn’t be able to get out.  
When her anger subsided, she could only reflect that she had gotten it horribly wrong. It was stupid to stand up to Elijah. By fighting him, she had made him an enemy and so he had treated her like one. Not even that: she was a defeated enemy, a prisoner.

Yet he’d invited her to dinner.

That was a kind of peace offering, but still only on his terms. He hadn’t shown any willingness to compromise. She would have to try a different tactic.

When she emerged from the room, Elijah was waiting at the top of the stairs for her. He held out his arm and Elena took it quietly. Elijah raised an eyebrow at her compliance, but made no comment.

An array of shopping bags had been left in the hallway. Elena recognized some of them from local stores.

“What are those?”

“I believe you asked for a change of clothing.”

Elena bit her lip. There were too many for an overnight stay. This was long-term, she realized. She wouldn’t be leaving this house until Klaus came.

He showed her into the dining room, which Elena hadn’t previously seen. She barely noticed the polished dining table, or the glass cabinets filled with trophies and medals, or the china plates on the walls, because suddenly the most delicious smell had wafted through the doorway. Her stomach growled in anticipation. It was the smell of roasting beef. Elena’s body seemed to remember that it hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday; her mouth watered and she felt almost faint.

“We shouldn’t have long to wait,” said Elijah.

He pulled out a chair for her and she sat down, resisting the temptation to crane her head to see what was going on in the kitchen.

He took a seat opposite her and opened a bottle of wine. Their places had already been set. The only thing missing was the food. Elijah glanced at her empty wine glass, silently asking if she wanted a drink. Deciding that she might as well, Elena nodded and watched him pour red wine into her glass before pouring his own.

She didn’t like the way this had been set up. It was too much like a date.

“No candles?” she asked sardonically. “Oh, wait, that’s probably too much of a safety hazard.”

He smirked, trying the wine before answering. “I save candles for more intimate occasions.”

She shook her head. There was nothing to say to that. “So what did you mean by the next piece of the puzzle? What do you need Stefan and Damon for?”

“Information,” he replied. “Somewhere in Mystic Falls is a place where a hundred witches were massacred centuries ago. They may know where it is.”

Elena frowned. “Why do you want to find it?”

“The spirits of dead witches leave traces. In this case, very powerful traces. If a witch can channel that power, and use it when Klaus is at his weakest point, after the sacrifice... Klaus will die.”

“That’s why you’re working with Jonas and Luka,” Elena realized. “You need a witch to kill Klaus.”

“Yes.” Elijah looked up at some sound that Elena couldn’t hear. “Ah, dinner is served.”

He was right. A few seconds later, Mrs Roberts appeared bearing a slab of roast beef, and then serving dishes filled with vegetables and a gravy boat. She carved up the beef while Elena helped herself to the rest of the food, her questions momentarily forgotten. Elijah did the same, but at a more leisurely pace.

“There’s one thing I don’t understand,” she said. “You’re talking about using magic to kill Klaus, but why? Why go through with the ritual? You have the dagger now; you can use that to kill him.”

“The dagger won’t work.”

“I know you can’t use it,” she went on, prompting an eye roll from him, “because it would kill you. But I can. I can help you.”

“Elena,” he said. “The dagger won’t work. It can’t be used to kill Klaus.”

“But... why?”

“It’s a long story. But it can’t be done.”

Elena paused. Using her knife with her right hand was proving to be a little more painful than usual. And from Elijah’s tone, she could tell that he was holding something back.

“Are you really that eager to kill me?” she asked, her voice trembling. “Is it because I betrayed you, is that why?”

“No,” Elijah replied softly. “Your betrayal makes no difference.”

“Then tell me.”

He did; and he was right, it was a long story. Elena sat in astonished silence as Elijah explained how he was related to Klaus, that they were half-brothers, and that Klaus was both werewolf and vampire. The dagger would kill an Original, but it would not work on Klaus, because he was more than an Original.

“What about the ritual?” she asked. “How will that weaken him?”

His answer was yet another series of dizzying revelations. All this time, Elena had thought that the curse Klaus wanted to break was the curse of the sun and the moon, the one that prevented vampires from walking in the sun. She and her friends had wondered at various times why the Originals would want to break it when they clearly had no problem with daylight. Now Elijah explained why Klaus was desperate to do so: the curse had nothing to do with the sun and moon at all; they had made it up. The real curse had been placed on Klaus alone, and it suppressed his werewolf side. He wanted to break it so that he could become a true hybrid.

“Once the curse is broken, Klaus will begin to transform,” Elijah finished. “He’ll be at his weakest. That is our chance to kill him.”

By this time, they’d reached dessert and Elena was spooning cheesecake into her mouth without looking. She was enthralled by Elijah’s story, but through it all was an undercurrent of fear: his plan still required her to die. He’d given her so much to think about.

“You helped him, with Katerina,” she said slowly. She’d heard that part from Katherine herself.

“Yes, I did.”

“But now you want him dead? Why?”

Elijah paused, glancing down, and spoke with weary sadness. “I loved him once. But no more. Klaus killed my family. He scattered them at sea so that their bodies cannot be found.”

He looked back up and met her eyes then, and as they gazed as each other, Elena felt a deep and profound sympathy for him. For the first time since he had kidnapped her, she felt something, a connection, like a current of understanding passing between them. She recognized the weight in his eyes, as complicated and rich and age-old as it was, because Elena had lost her parents too. And despite everything that had happened, despite the fact that she knew he still intended to have her killed, compassion won over.

“I’m sorry,” she said honestly.

His expression changed fractionally; she couldn’t quite interpret it, but then he inclined his head. “Thank you.”

There was a short silence. Elena frowned, thinking hard. She had a lot of information to process all at once, but she knew instinctively that the matter of Elijah’s family was the most important. That was why he was here in the first place, why he’d kidnapped her. She knew that she needed to try a different tactic. Now one occurred to her.

“Then you understand the importance of family,” she said. “You understand why I’m fighting so hard for mine.”

“I do.”

“But you still won’t make any promises.”

He leaned back, watching her, but remained silent.

“Because you can’t trust me.” She bit her lip. “Then let me make it up to you. What can I do to prove myself?”

“I don’t like being taken for a fool, Elena,” he said quietly.

“You won’t be. It’s not like I can do anything to hurt you. So I’m going to behave. Hope that I can regain your trust.”

“Even though you know you must die?”

She sighed. “If it comes down to it, yes.”

He stood up, his face shadowed. “We’ll see.”


	5. Quid Pro Quo

They chose Caroline’s house as their rendezvous, despite the fact that it was occupied by Sheriff Forbes, because it was the only place they could all get into that Elijah couldn’t. Caroline assured them that Liz had left early for work and they settled into the living room, Caroline and Bonnie perched on the couch while Damon leaned against the mantelpiece and Alaric looked uncomfortable in an armchair. Stefan was currently occupied elsewhere.

That had been a great phone call, Damon reflected. One of their best. Stefan was all, _um, they kicked us out of the apartment_ , and Damon was only sorry that there had been no one in the vicinity to throttle.

“Great plan, Stefan. Why do I leave you to handle these things?”

“I’m watching the apartment,” Stefan had said. “They have to come out some time. And when they do, I’ll be there.”

As yet, he’d heard nothing back from Stefan, which was unsurprising given that people didn’t tend to go anywhere in the early hours of the morning. In the meantime, Damon had decided some recruiting was in order. He tossed Caroline a blood bag, which she emptied into a glass, and poured his own. He’d grabbed all their stock from the boarding house, figuring that they wouldn’t be returning there for a while.

Caroline gulped down the blood before speaking. “Where’s Jeremy?”

“He’s not coming,” said Bonnie. “He’s in the house with Katherine; we didn’t want her to find out about the meeting.”

“Well, is he okay?”

“He’s fine. I called him earlier.”

“What about Jenna?” Alaric asked.

“She’s okay too.”

Bonnie gave him a questioning look and he sighed. “She won’t return my calls.”

“Girlfriend trouble aside,” said Damon, “let’s cut to the chase. Since you failed so spectacularly at accomplishing anything last night, let’s make sure we do better today, hmm? We have ourselves a warlock to kidnap.”

The plan was simple. They’d take it in turns to watch the Martins’ apartment and follow them until they had a chance to grab one of them alone. A vampire could take even a powerful witch by surprise if they were quick enough; all it would take was a blow to the head and the witch would be out for the count.

“Once you’ve got him,” said Bonnie, “where are you gonna put him?”

“Right here. You do your witchy stuff, the other witch squeals, we go find Elena.”

Bonnie’s eyes widened. “I don’t think I can do that.”

They all looked suspiciously uncomfortable. Alaric cleared his throat; Caroline looked down. Damon stared at Bonnie, a muscle in his face twitching with well-worn frustration. He put the glass of blood down and advanced upon her, leaning forward to make his point absolutely clear.

“Bonnie. You’re not entirely useless, so don’t lie to me. You are going to do a spell and break through whatever magic the Martins are using to hide Elena’s location.”

She shook her head, almost tearful. “I can’t.”

Damon had wanted to kill Bonnie several times since they had met. This was definitely one of those times. He spoke through gritted teeth. “Any reason why?”

“I... Listen, if I could find Elena, I would.” She bit her lip. “The reason I can’t is... because I’ve lost my powers.”

“ _What_?”

“Jonas took them. I... can’t do anything now.”

He could see the tears glistening in her eyes. Caroline put a comforting arm around her and Damon glanced at Alaric to see him looking resigned. None of them were surprised. Damon stepped back.

“You all knew?” He stared around at them. Reluctant nods followed. “But none of you said a word.”

“Because of me,” said Bonnie, looking up at him. “I didn’t want to tell you.”

“Why? You don’t trust me?”

“No. I don’t trust you.”

For a moment they just stared at each other, both equally hard and cold. Bonnie had never liked him. He’d tried and failed to get on her good side, but she’d made it perfectly clear that she only worked with him because they both wanted to protect Elena. For his part, he needed her for her powers. Which she had now apparently lost. Great.

Alaric cleared his throat again. Damon was tempted to ask him if he wanted something for that. “Um, guys? This isn’t helping.”

“The plan will still work, Damon,” Caroline piped up. “We just need to adjust it a little. I say we grab Luka, and threaten to kill him if his dad doesn’t give Bonnie her powers back.”

Bonnie sighed. “We don’t actually have to kill Luka, do we? None of this is his fault.”

“We’re going to kill both of them,” said Damon. “Eventually. But Caroline’s right. Except we make Jonas give us back Elena too.”

“And then we have to deal with Elijah,” said Alaric.

“And then we deal with Elijah. I’m volunteering you for that, Ric, what do you think? You did it oh so well the first time.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not keen on pushing my luck.”

“We’ll all need some luck,” said Damon grimly. “So are we in? Stefan’s going to need someone to relieve him soon.”

He looked at Alaric first, and received a nod in response. Then Caroline, who was sitting up straight and looking determined. Despite the fact that she’d been saddled with Stefan to teach her, she’d turned into a surprisingly effective vampire. Finally, he turned his eyes on Bonnie again. She didn’t look happy, but then she rarely did when he was in the room.

“Bonnie?”

She compressed her lips. “Okay. I’m in.”

“And I can take next watch!” Caroline volunteered. “Anything to avoid Katherine at school.”

Damon nodded. “Fine. I’ll replace you after lunch. Let’s go.”

*

  
Elena descended the stairs to the kitchen to find Mrs Roberts making coffee. There was no sign of Elijah. She smiled awkwardly as the woman turned to greet her.

“Morning. Coffee?”

“I can make it myself,” Elena offered.

“No, it’s fine,” said Mrs Roberts, and refused to budge on the matter. Eventually Elena gave up and sat down at the kitchen table, wondering where Elijah had got to. She could make a run for it. It would take her less than a minute to exit the room and reach the front door. But she’d also promised to behave, in the hope that Elijah might become more willing to make a deal again. Running would only encourage him to compel her the moment he could.

She wasn’t sure if the vervain had left her system yet. It probably wouldn’t be long now.

“What do you think of your new clothes?” Mrs Roberts asked, setting down a coffee in front of her.

“Oh – they’re fine, thank you,” she replied absently. She supposed that Elijah must have compelled Mrs Roberts to buy them – with whose money, she didn’t know. But they were all the right size, and the jeans and dark blue top she wore currently were much like her usual attire.

“So you’re settling in?” Mrs Roberts took a seat opposite her, warming her hands on her coffee mug.

“Yes, I suppose.” Elena wondered just how much this woman was being compelled. She’d seen humans who seemed to be little more than puppets, doing only what a vampire told them. “Mrs Roberts – should I call you Mrs Roberts? What’s your first name?”

“Irene.”

“Irene.” Elena smiled. “I saw the pictures of your family. Would you mind telling me about them? Where are they?”

“Grown up.” Irene sipped her coffee, shrugging wistfully. “Grown up and left home. Sarah and Lucy are both married. Andrew, the youngest, joined the army a few years ago. He was sent abroad... If you’re worried about the rooms, it’s no problem. They’re all free.”

“Do you know why I’m here?”

“You’re staying with Elijah. He’s a gentleman, isn’t he? Always so polite. Reminds me a little of my grandfather, you know, that old-fashioned way about him.”

Elena leaned forward. “He’s keeping me prisoner. Can’t you see that?”

Irene blinked. “See what? What are you talking about?”

“That I’m a prisoner. Yesterday he trapped me in the bedroom, remember?”

It was like she didn’t hear the words. “You’re a guest,” said Irene firmly, “and I’m here to look after you, always remember that.”

Elena shook her head, slumping back in her chair. “I’m sorry. We shouldn’t be intruding on you like this... Elijah hasn’t... fed on you, has he?”

She could see no marks on the woman, nor was Irene wearing anything that covered her neck, but she did have long sleeves so any bite marks could be hidden. Irene simply looked confused.

“No, I haven’t.”

Elena jumped, nearly spilling her coffee, and spun to see Elijah standing in the doorway. She had no idea how long he’d been there.

“Leave us, please,” Elijah said to Irene, and she exited without a word of protest. In a moment, he’d taken her place, regarding Elena with a kind of distant contemplation. “She won’t recognize you as a captive. To her, you are a guest.”

“She’s a person,” said Elena. “I just wanted...”

“If her presence discomforts you, I could send her away.”

She shook her head. “This is her home. Where would you send her to?”

“I’d encourage her to take a vacation.”

Elena had to think about that. Either way, he was compelling her. Maybe Irene would enjoy herself a little more on vacation, but she was alone and there was still the question of how the trip would be paid for. And if she disappeared, there would be no one around who could invite any vampires into the house. Still, it was either that or remain a slave in her own home.

She buried her head in her hands, rubbing her eyes tiredly. “I don’t know. I don’t even know what the right thing to do is, this whole thing is... Why are you even giving me this choice?”

“Because it doesn’t matter. Now I have things to do today, so I’ve arranged for you to have a visitor.”

Her head shot up to stare at him. “A visitor?”

“Jonas Martin. I would prefer that he didn’t know where you were, but since I can’t compel you...”

“You’re going to trap me in the house.”

“Yes.”

Well, it was better than handcuffs. He seemed to have lost all the anger from the night she had tried to stab him, or at least concealed it, and he was certainly treating her better than when she had fought him. _Only as long as I behave_ , she thought morosely. _Only as long as it suits him._

She sighed. “Where are you going?”

“On a little fact-finding mission.”

“Isn’t that what you were doing yesterday?”

“Well, certain facts remain elusive. You have one of them, Elena. I would still like to know where you got the dagger.”

She drew a deep breath. “If I tell you this–”

“No.”

He’d anticipated her easily. There was that cold, amused look in his eyes again, enjoying her attempts to negotiate with him – but this time, he held all the power. He could say no and there was nothing she could do about it. But he didn’t seem angry. If this was a game they were playing – a game they had been playing since the moment they’d met – then it was like chess and he’d once again put her into check. But he was still playing. Which meant that there was still hope.

“All right. Fine.” She lifted her chin and stared at him evenly. “John had it. He gave it to Damon. That’s all I know.”

“Thank you.”

She might have sealed John’s fate with those three words. Elena wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

*

  
Caroline pulled up on the street outside the Martins’ apartment. She was trying to be discreet, so she didn’t park directly opposite, but she was close enough that she could see if anyone entered or left. It only took a couple of seconds for Stefan to appear at the car door. Caroline wound down the window.

“Hey, get in here!”

He slid into the passenger seat. “Hey, I thought Damon was going to take over?”

“Well, I volunteered.” Caroline shot him a cheery grin. “I brought snacks.” She set down a couple of plastic cups and some bagels. “This is what the cops do when they stake out a house, right? Sit in the car and eat bagels and exchange witty banter.”  
“I think I might have to skip the witty banter, Caroline.” He smiled ruefully. “I’m kinda hungry.”

“Oh, yes! You’ve been here all night. Sorry. That’s fine, you go. That’s what I’m here for. I’m keeping watch for the next... um, five hours, and then it’s Damon’s turn.” She plonked a straw into her plastic cup and slurped. Coffee. Not as good as blood, but vital to keep a vampire warm and fresh.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?”

He was looking at her with those sweet concerned eyes, even though she knew he must be fatigued and hungry after his long vigil. Caroline smiled.

“I’m fine, really. I know what to do.”

He nodded. “Remember, the most important thing is the element of surprise. They can’t see you.”

She nodded. “Got it!”

*

  
They’d abandoned the boarding house; that much was clear. On this, his second visit, Elijah discovered that the fridge they kept in the basement was empty. Someone had been in to take all the blood bags. If he waited long enough and kept a low profile, they would probably return again. However, he didn’t have that much time to spare.  
Elijah discovered this when he paid John Gilbert a call.

“That dagger was passed down through our family,” John insisted, though his pupils were dilated with fear.

“I’m going to give you five seconds to tell me the truth, John.” He didn’t count down, merely stared at his watch and waited, allowing the seconds to tick by in agonizing silence.

“Isobel,” John blurted out at last.

Elijah raised an eyebrow. “Elena’s birth mother?”

“She’s a research expert. She found out that there was a way to kill an Original, and she brought me the dagger.”

“Where did she get it?”

“She didn’t say.” Elijah leaned forward and John spluttered. “I’m telling the truth! She was always very secretive about her sources.”

“Why was she looking for a way to kill an Original?”

“She’s Elena’s mother. She knew about the curse. She was looking for a way to kill Klaus, and protect our daughter.”

“Where is she now?”

John took a deep breath. “The last time I talked to her, she said that she was on her way.”

“Thank you,” said Elijah. “You’ve been very helpful.”

He stood up, and John watched him, white-faced, but before anything else could happen, Elijah heard Jenna walk through the door. A few seconds later, she appeared in the living room, looking in on them both with surprise.

“Elijah! And John. What are you two up to?”

“I was just asking John about the family history,” said Elijah smoothly. “He’s quite the expert on the matter of the Gilbert journals.”

“Oh, really?” Jenna raised her eyebrows. “Well, he did join the Historical Society once, but I’m fairly certain that was only to impress me.”

“Well, I won’t intrude on you any longer,” said Elijah, making his way towards the door.

“Are you sure?” Jenna asked. “It’s no trouble, really. I could make us some coffee, John could, I don’t know, leave town, and...”

“I have an appointment with Carol Lockwood,” he said, which wasn’t strictly true as he didn’t have an actual appointment, but he could compel her into thinking that they did, so it came to much the same thing. “Sorry, Jenna.” He turned to John. “We’ll finish this another time.”

John swallowed, which probably indicated that he had guessed what Elijah meant, but he could do no more than that while Jenna was in the room. Elijah made his excuses and left. If his speculations were correct, Elena’s birth mother had come into contact with Klaus. That was how she had obtained the dagger. Klaus would send her to scope out the town first; assess any threats – including him.

When that happened, he had to be prepared.

*

  
Two long and boring hours later, Caroline was beginning to think that she might have preferred to face Katherine at school. All that were left of the bagels were crumbs, and she’d finished both cups of coffee and the blood bag that she’d surreptitiously hidden in the drawer in front of the passenger seat. She wondered what Elena was doing. She wondered what Matt was doing, and felt suddenly guilty that she’d left him alone with Katherine in school. Then her thoughts turned to Tyler and she hated him again for leaving her. Maybe he and Jules would hook up and make little werewolf puppies together. Ugh.

Caroline pulled down the rear-view mirror, checking her hair. It was then that she finally noticed movement at the apartment. A figure had emerged and she felt her heart leap in excitement. Last time this had happened it had been a woman and she’d gotten all terrified for nothing. This time...

It was him. She recognized Jonas as he strode over to his blue sedan. Caroline flipped the mirror closed and shrank back, praying that he wouldn’t look her way. He got in... She heard the car start. She felt dizzy with uncertainty for a moment as she wondered whether she ought to follow him. They’d decided that it would be better to go for Luka – he was younger, weaker, and should be easier to take by surprise – but what if Luka never came out? It was already way past first period. After yesterday, she wasn’t surprised that Luka didn’t intend to go back to school.

The car pulled away. If she didn’t set off now, she’d lose him. He was moving away from her, which was lucky – if he saw her... Caroline made up her mind. She waited until the car had disappeared out of sight, and then got out of her car and headed for the apartment.

*

  
Bonnie found Jeremy during first break, or rather, he found her; he came hurrying up to her as she was checking her phone yet again, waiting for a message from Caroline or Damon. The moment they had Luka, she’d have to skip school and go.

“Hey,” she said brightly, slipping her phone back into her bag. “Are you okay? I thought Katherine might end up going with you to school.”

He leaned against the lockers and shook his head. “Stefan picked her up. She’s left me alone, mostly.”

“Thank God. I hate the thought of you in there with her. And poor Jenna...”

“It’s not ideal.”

He was trying to act cool, she supposed, or else not taking this seriously enough. Bonnie sighed, smiling at him. “Really, I’m worried about you.”

“Well, I’m worried about you. And Elena. Do you think those witches are still in their apartment?”

“The Martins,” Bonnie corrected him softly. “And I don’t know. We don’t have a plan yet... We just need to, I don’t know, try and figure something out. But in the meantime, you probably shouldn’t go back to your house.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Well, where else am I supposed to go?”

She shifted, looking down coyly. “Well... you could stay over at my place.”

“Your house?” The way his eyes lit up was adorable. Bonnie wondered how she had failed to notice his cuteness before. Honestly, she should be kicking herself. He grinned. “So what, is this your way of saying that we’re officially dating now?”  
“No!” She hit him on the arm, but playfully. “I don’t know about official, but I like spending time with you, and you need a place to crash, so...”

“Would your dad be okay with this?”

“I’ll sneak you in.”

He could hardly contain his smile. “Okay, uh. Sure. Cool.”

They said their goodbyes and Bonnie smiled as she watched him disappear down the corridor again. His grin was infectious; when he was happy, it made her feel happy, and that was something they had very little of at the moment. Her smile soon faded at that thought. She’d lied to him. It really wasn’t the best way to start a relationship, but she couldn’t risk Jeremy getting involved. Their situation was dangerous enough already.

*

  
Damon raised his eyebrows, impressed, as Caroline dumped the unconscious Luka in the living room.

“For the record,” said Caroline, “this is the last time I volunteer my house for anything. What if my mom comes home?”

“Then I’ll distract her,” said Damon. “She’s the least of our worries, believe me. How’d you do it, Barbie?”

“Tricked him,” she said. “As soon as Jonas had gone, I compelled someone to ask him for help. The moment he stepped out of the apartment, I jumped him.”

“Great. Get Stefan and Bonnie over here.” He knelt down by the unconscious Luka and plucked his cell phone out of his pocket. “I’ve got a call to make.”


	6. An Exchange

“I don’t want any trouble,” said Jonas, “so stay put and there doesn’t have to be.”

Elena nodded. “I don’t want any trouble either.”

He’d sealed her in, or so he said; she hadn’t tested it. She didn’t plan to either. There wasn’t really any point when she was certain they weren’t bluffing. Elena had been trapped by magic before – in her own home, by Bonnie. Ironically, by doing so Bonnie had left her at the mercy of Elijah, because he could get in and she couldn’t get out.

That was the day he’d offered her a deal.

Elena wished she could go back to that.

Instead, she had Jonas in the armchair nearby, frowning as he pored over a newspaper. She was curled up on the couch, watching bad daytime TV. The last days of her life were going to be filled with soap reruns and Oprah. The banality of it all felt almost surreal.

A phone rang. Elena glanced up, startled, to see Jonas fumbling for his cell. He got up swiftly, gesturing for her to stay put.

“Luka?” she heard him say before he disappeared into the next room.

*

  
“Guess again,” said Damon.

He heard a sharp intake of breath. “Where’s Luka? What have you done with him?”

“Oh, he’s right here. Unconscious, but still kicking. Metaphorically speaking.”

Damon glanced at Luka, who remained on the floor exactly where Caroline had left him. Stefan and Caroline were sharing the couch, watching him with anxious expressions. Stefan had offered to make the call himself, but Damon was adamant that he would handle it. He didn’t trust his brother not to go soft. Bonnie was sitting closest to Luka and she kept looking at him; he’d have to remind her that this was no time to feel guilty. It was lucky for him that she couldn’t hear the other end of this conversation.

“If you touch him–”

“Too late for that, Dad.” Damon went on before the witch could interrupt. “And yes, I know that you can do your witchy ju-ju to find out where he is, but I can also snap Luka’s neck before you even walk through the door. So no funny business. Give us back Elena and your son will live to see another day. Oh, and you can give Bonnie back her powers too. Deal?”

“You’re making a mistake,” Jonas growled. “Elijah will kill you.”

“Not before I kill Luka. I don’t play around. I’m very good at killing witches. Call it a hobby.”

Bonnie made a face at him, which Damon ignored.

Jonas swallowed. “I want to know that he’s with you first.”

Damon looked over at Luka again. The boy still showed no sign of stirring. A thin trail of blood stained the corner of his mouth. Caroline had hit him hard. That was the disadvantage of using a newbie vampire; she didn’t know her own strength. He suspected that she’d almost killed him; they’d had to feed him vampire blood to keep him from slipping away.

“Mmm, sure. He can’t talk right now, but I’ll send you a picture. I’ll send you a photo album. Now are you going to give us back Elena, or not?”

He could hear the strain in Jonas’ voice, but the witch held it together. “If you bring Luka back to my apartment alive and well, I’ll take you to Elena.”

Stefan shook his head at him, unnecessarily. That offer was an obvious no-go. “So that Elijah can ambush us? I don’t think so. You’re bringing Elena to us. The sheriff’s house. You have one hour. Don’t be late.”

He ended the call.

Caroline immediately objected. “You told him where we are? Are you sure that’s a good idea? What if he tells my mom?”

Damon shrugged. “He’s a witch; he’ll find out anyway.”

“Telling your mom would complicate things,” Stefan reassured her. “I doubt they’d want that.”

She wasn’t convinced. “He can also make multiple people collapse with that witchy brain voodoo thing, do you remember that?”

It was like explaining things to children sometimes. Or all the time. Damon rolled his eyes. “Yes, I do, Caroline. Which is why I will be waiting outside ready to kill him the moment he arrives.”

“And I’ll go to the door to make the exchange,” said Stefan. “It’s better that he doesn’t know you’re involved.”

“What about Luka?” Bonnie asked.

Damon shoved Luka’s phone into his pocket. He wouldn’t need it. “I’ll kill him as soon as we have Elena.”

“Damon, there has to be another way–”

“Bonnie, you already tried the ‘let’s hold hands and make peace’ tactic, copyright Stefan. It didn’t work. They have to die.”

“But if Jonas dies, I’ll never get my powers back.”

Stefan leaned back, eyebrows lifting. “She’s right.”

Damon paused. He hadn’t thought of that. Damn it. “All right, fine. I’ll take him out but I won’t kill him.”

“And if Elijah shows up?” Caroline asked.

“That’s why we’re here,” said Damon. “We’re safe as long as we’re in here, which is why you’re going to stay put and let me handle Jonas.”

“And then what? We’ll be trapped.”

“Not if we can stake him. It won’t kill him permanently, but we can take him out long enough to get the hell out of here.”

“That’s your plan? Run?”

She was picking a truly terrible time to start questioning their strategy. Damon was losing his patience. “Do you have a better one?” he snapped. “We don’t have any way to kill him.”

Caroline sighed, looking at Bonnie. “This plan is starting to sound a little bit suicidal to me.”

Stefan turned to her. “Hey. If you want to back out, that’s okay. Damon and I can handle this. Elijah already wants us dead; he doesn’t need to want you dead too.”

Caroline shook her head. “No. Elena needs us.”

“Once I have my powers back, I can help protect us,” Bonnie added. “There has to be a way.”

Blind optimism. He liked it. Maybe a better state of mind to be in than Damon was right now: he was fully expecting his actions to blow up in his face at some point, but at least if they could save Elena, it would be worth it. That was all he cared about right now. While the rest of them worried and fretted and tried to negotiate, Damon had one clear aim:

Anyone who threatened Elena would die.

*

  
“Hey, Elena.”

Katherine turned and smiled. “Matt, hey! How are you?”

The blue-eyed boy, she thought impishly. He was all rumpled and tousled-looking, worry lines creasing his brow. The population density of hot guys, Katherine had decided, was a definite benefit of going to high school. She imagined running her hands through that blond hair, tilting his head back just enough so that she could reach his throat and pierce the vein–

Katherine blinked, controlling herself. Another moment and the blood would have rushed to her eyes. Matt was speaking. She made herself focus.

“Honestly, I’m kinda worried. Have you seen Caroline? She hasn’t turned up for school today.”

These people. They were always worrying about each other’s whereabouts. Did none of them know how to use a phone?

“Hasn’t she?” Katherine tried to inject a tone of concern into her voice. She wasn’t sure she succeeded. “Hmm. No, I haven’t seen her.”

“I’m just... I’m worried, because I think it might be my fault. I said some things yesterday and she said some things...”

“You’re gonna have to be a little more specific.”

He glanced down for a moment, awkwardness in every line of his body. Katherine sensed that there was a little more to the story here. She watched him carefully, intrigued.

“Well, the truth is that I don’t really know. There’s something going on with her, but she won’t tell me what it is so I’m kind of stumbling around in the dark here.” He shrugged, spreading his hands. “Is it the same with you? Sorry, am I being a complete ass for asking this?”

“No,” said Katherine, brushing his jacket sleeve with her hand. “Not at all, you’re very sweet. You know, if you want to talk about this, it’s okay. I’m here for you.”

The words sounded sickly sweet on her tongue, but Matt seemed to buy it. He smiled at her. “Thanks, Elena.”

They were interrupted by a woman Katherine didn’t recognize, but she knew that she should.

“Elena, can I see you in my office for a moment?”

Matt gave her a look, which Katherine interpreted as consternation. Maybe this was the principal.

“Sure,” she said. “I’ll see you later, Matt.”

She shot him a parting smile before following the woman. Stern look, suit jacket, frumpy hair. Definitely the principal, Katherine surmised, or at least the vice-principal. Was Elena in trouble? The whole work part of this school thing was such a bore. Normally Katherine would have compelled the woman to let her go, but she was feeling hungry. The woman would make a fine mid-morning snack. Her prospective victim opened the door to her office and showed her inside. Katherine stepped in behind her, already licking her lips in anticipation of an easy meal... and stopped dead.

“Good morning, Katerina,” said Elijah. He was sitting at the teacher’s desk, looking perfectly at home. “Please, have a seat.”

*

  
“What’s going on?” Elena asked as Jonas stormed past, pulling on his jacket.

He paused to stare at her and Elena had never seen anyone look at her with such unbridled hatred. The force of it made her quail.

“Your friends,” said Jonas, his voice shaking with suppressed rage, “kidnapped my son.”

“Oh, God,” she breathed.

She didn’t need to ask to guess why. They must have taken him hostage, in order to get her back. Elena’s head was a whirlwind of questions. Did they know where she was? Were they coming for her?

She stood up, fists clenched, determined to know more. “What are you going to do?”

“Get him back,” said Jonas. “I’ve already called Elijah. You’ll see what happens when you mess with an Original.”

“No,” she said, aghast. Elijah would kill them all. “There must be something I can do – let me talk to them...”

He pushed her aside. “You are not going to do anything. Get out of my way.”

*

  
Katherine tried to make a run for it, but he was too fast. He blocked her at the door and she backed away into the office, breathing hard, looking around in case there was another way out. There wasn’t.

“I’d like to speak to your student alone,” Elijah told the woman, and she left obediently, shutting the door behind her.

Katherine was trapped.

“What do you want, Elijah?” she hissed.

“I noticed you’re filling Elena’s shoes.” He glanced down. “Quite literally.”

Of course, he knew that she was staying at the Gilbert house. Ever since Jenna had told her about her date, Katherine had been expecting him to appear. Truthfully, she’d expected him at the house, not at school. Now she had to do some acting, though it wasn’t hard; she was genuinely terrified. She watched him return to his seat, in a parody of the teacher regarding the troublesome student. He even adjusted a couple of folders, straightening them before looking up at her.

“Sit,” he said.

She obeyed.

Elijah picked up a pencil and twisted it between his fingers thoughtfully. “Funny,” he said. “I expected you to flee. That is your usual _modus operandi_ , is it not?”

“You got what you came for. I thought you’d be gone.”

“I don’t believe that. You knew that I would seek you out.”

He was testing her, she guessed. Trying to figure out her motives. She twisted her mouth. “Fine. No, I didn’t believe that you’d leave me alone. Five hundred years is a long time to bear a grudge, but here you are. And here I am, because I still want my freedom.” She leaned forward, placing her hands on the desk. “I know that you want to kill Klaus. So do I. Grant me a pardon, and I’ll help you.”

There the offer stood, the words seeming to hang between them. Katherine had put on her most sincere, desperate face; her voice rang with the air of truth. She held his gaze without flinching.

He raised an eyebrow. “Help me how exactly? Just what are you willing to do?”

“Anything,” she replied instantly. “I’ll kill Damon, I’ll kill Stefan, I’ll slaughter anyone who gets in your way if you want me to – as long as you let me walk away alive and unharmed once Klaus is dead. Grant me my freedom. That’s all I want.”

He seemed to consider this, twirling the pencil on the tabletop, and she watched him anxiously, her heart beating fast. This was a gamble. She knew that. He didn’t trust her; he’d chased her relentlessly for five hundred years, but if she couldn’t kill him, this was her next best bet. He’d made a deal with Elena; she was counting on him being willing to make one with her.

“As a matter of fact, there is something you can do for me,” said Elijah, and her heart skipped a beat. “Do this, and you can have your deal. But if you cross me, I will kill you – do you understand that?”

She nodded. “What do you want me to do?”

*

  
They were ready, and had been for half an hour. Damon ran through everything again in his head. Alaric was at the school, where he could keep an eye on Jeremy and Katherine. If everything went wrong today, he’d have to pick up the pieces. Stefan, Caroline and Bonnie were inside Caroline’s house with Luka. The witch had probably woken up by now, but that was why they had two vampires. If he tried to take out one, the other could deal with it. Damon was counting on him being too scared to do anything.

Damon assigned himself the most dangerous position: outside, in the open. In fact, he was lurking in the back alley of a nearby house, all of his senses on high alert. He could take out Jonas. But if Elijah turned up... That would be more difficult.  
Damon was holding a stake. He’d take pleasure in driving it through the Original’s heart.

Less than ten minutes before his time was up, Jonas appeared. A blue sedan pulled up opposite Caroline’s house. He recognized the car’s occupant, and his muscles tightened in anticipation. He glanced around, checking for danger in all directions. Nothing.

It felt like it took an agonizingly long time for Jonas to get out of the car, walk around, and open the door for Elena to get out too. The moment he saw her, Damon’s heart leapt. Her head was bent, hair obscuring most of her face, but he didn’t need to see her face to recognize her slight figure. She was wearing the same clothes she had been the night she was taken.

He’d never have her, and that fact still pained him right to the core, but he would do anything to save her.

Damon watched Jonas take Elena’s arm, focusing on his precise position and movements with a predator’s eye. Any... second... no–

A hand clamped around his mouth and in the same moment he felt the dull pain of a vervain dart in his stomach.

Elijah’s voice was soft as eiderdown. “Your dishonour knows no bounds, does it, Damon?”

He hissed a muffled profanity, fighting against both the effects of the vervain and Elijah, but though his body could cope better with the former, he was still no match against the latter; and he felt himself sag, only Elijah’s grip keeping him upright. The stake had been wrenched from his hand and now it tilted lightly against his chest; one wrong move, Damon realized, and it would slide into his heart.

“Observe,” Elijah murmured. “A peaceful exchange.”

He was forcing Damon to watch, helpless, and watch was all Damon could do. He saw Jonas and Elena stop in front of Caroline’s house. He saw the door open, Stefan appear. Stefan’s brow creased as he looked around and Damon knew why: his brother was looking for him.

Jonas spoke, and Damon focused his attention at once. “I want my son.”

“You can have him,” said Stefan, “as soon as you give us Elena.”

“Show him to me,” Jonas growled. “I want to see him alive.”

Stefan stepped back, opening the door fully, and revealed Bonnie supporting Luka, who still looked dazed.

“Dad!”

“Let him go,” said Jonas, his voice strained. “Elena, start walking.”

Elena did so, glancing back at Jonas, her expression determined. Damon watched with increasing bewilderment as she stepped onto the porch, as Stefan reached out to draw her into the house, as Bonnie pushed Luka outside and he stumbled back to his father...

Elijah hadn’t moved. He could have. He could have staked or incapacitated Damon by now and sped over to pluck Elena away before she’d gotten within a foot of the door, but he hadn’t. He was waiting for something.

Something was wrong.

Elena and Stefan embraced, safe beyond the entrance threshold. He was still watching and listening intently, attuned to every movement, every whisper, and so it was that Damon heard Elena’s next words as clearly as if she’d murmured into his own ear:

“I’m sorry, Stef.”

He realized his mistake then, in a moment of awful clarity. Damon had planned for Elijah’s appearance; that was why he had chosen somewhere Elijah couldn’t enter, but he had forgotten one thing.

Katherine had been invited into Caroline’s house.

Stefan suddenly doubled over, groaning; Katherine grabbed him by the scruff of his jacket and threw him out of the house. He crashed into the gate; she blurred over and scooped him up and then all four of them – Jonas, Luka, Katherine and Stefan – were piling into the car and there was a roaring in his ears: they had _his brother._

Bonnie screamed, “No!”, Caroline burst out in a blur of yellow and was blasted back against her own house, where she fell, crumpled; and Damon wrenched so violently, snarling, eyes red, that the stake plunged into his chest; he felt a horrible freezing pain before collapsing into blissful nothing.


	7. The Next Move

Damon woke up still bleeding, on a cold hard stone floor, chained up in a dungeon. He’d had better days. Groaning, he sat up, pulling at the chains, and froze as his eyes met Elijah’s standing before him.

Damon coughed and spat out blood. The stake had missed his heart, but pierced his lung. It was still in there. He pulled it out, gasping for breath until it healed, then threw the stake aside and regarded his captor.

“So you’re still here.” It came out as a croak. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Where’s my brother?”

“Right here,” Elijah replied.

He stepped aside and gestured over to an iron gate, behind which Damon could just make out the prone figure of his brother, also chained up. Belatedly, he recognized the Lockwood dungeon, where Liz had once captured and tortured them too. Somehow, this time he doubted that help was coming.

“What do you want?”

“The burial ground,” said Elijah. “Where is it?”

Damon managed a wry grin. “Is that what we’re doing here? Give up, man. I’m not telling you.”

He couldn’t have moved if he’d wanted to, so he merely watched as Elijah knelt down to grab him by the shirt. If this was his death about to meet him, Damon would look him in the eyes without fear. He was fine with that.

“Go ahead,” he breathed. “Kill me. Then you’ll never know.”

Elijah smiled. “Why do you think I brought your brother?”

It felt like his heart had contorted painfully. “No...”

Damon could bear a lot of things. He could bear torture – had done, as Elijah himself had seen – but Elijah had clearly learned from that episode. He couldn’t bear for his brother to die.

“No,” he gasped again, and fought against his chains as Elijah walked away from him, towards Stefan. “What – what’s the point? I know you’ll kill us the moment I spill.”

Elijah paused by the iron gate, leaning against it as casually as if they were having a dinner table conversation.

“Well, if you don’t, I’ll kill everyone in this town you care about one by one and then I’ll kill you. Your brother will only be the first.”

So it was either death or more death. Damon thought fast. There had to be a way out of this. The problem was that he didn’t actually know for sure where the burial ground was. He only had a suspicion, and a suspicion would not be enough to satisfy Elijah.

“All right,” he said. “You win. Let Stefan go and I’ll show you this burial ground.”  
“I don’t need to be shown. Tell me.”

Damon shook his head. “I can’t. It’s the truth,” he choked out, when Elijah blurred over to him, dark and menacing. “I don’t know where it is yet, but I know where to find out. I’d have to check the journals first.”

“What journals?”

“The Gilbert journals. They’re at the lake house.”

Elijah made an irritated sound deep in his throat and Damon knew that he was testing the other vampire’s patience. He was also aware of how convenient his story sounded, despite the fact that it was technically true.

“If you’re trying to fool me...”

“Believe me, I know the consequences.”

They stared at each other for a long moment.

“I’ll return in the morning,” said Elijah finally. “Good night, Damon.”

*

  
It was late afternoon by the time Elijah returned and Elena was going almost frantic with worry. She’d paced up and down, trying to distract herself by looking through every room in the house, but that hadn’t worked and she’d eventually settled down back on the living room couch, clutching a cushion to her chest as she imagined all the myriad ways her friends’ plan could have gone wrong.

Inevitably, it had gone wrong. She was still here. Jonas had not taken her to exchange for Luka, he had called Elijah instead and the scenario that Elena kept returning to was a complete bloodbath. She’d witnessed Elijah behead another vampire in a single swipe and she tormented herself with images of him doing the same to Stefan and Damon, until she wept at the mere thought.

Her tears had dried when Elijah appeared, but her stomach lurched as she sprang up, breathless. “What happened?”

He was still wearing his double breasted coat and he was also carrying a leather jacket, which he held out to her. “I need you to come somewhere with me.”

“What? We’re – we’re leaving?”

That could only mean one thing. He was ready to take her away to Klaus. She felt sick and clammy; her hands shook as she took the jacket from him and pulled it on, lifting her hair out of the way.

“For a short trip,” Elijah told her. “We’ll return before nightfall.”

She stared, uncomprehending.

“I’ll tell you in the car,” he added, betraying a hint of impatience.

Slowly, reluctantly, she followed him, moving almost in a daze. She paused automatically at the front door, though Elijah held it open for her, not quite sure if the invisible barrier was still there. It wasn’t, of course, and she shifted one foot over the threshold and then another, looking at him before almost breaking into a run across the porch and over the rough gravel path that led down from the house.  
He’d understood that look, for he made no attempt to follow her and Elena soon stopped, facing west as she gazed over the horizon. The sun hung low in the sky, which was streaked with hues of soft pink and lemon yellow, and she could see trees in the distance, their branches waving in the breeze which blew over the fields and whistled through her ears. She hadn’t felt the wind in two days, since all the windows in Mrs Robert’s house were kept tight shut and locked.

Maybe she could make a last request to him before she died. If she couldn’t see her loved ones, because they were dead, she could ask him to take her to the most beautiful place he knew. Somewhere that would make her feel alive.

She crossed her arms, for the breeze was a little chilly, and walked back over to where Elijah’s car was waiting. He’d opened the passenger seat for her this time, rather than the back, but she felt too weary to make any biting comment on this.

“So what’s going on?” she asked instead, as the car started. She didn’t dare ask if her friends had survived, not yet. Hearing the answer would make it all too final.

“Damon has asked to borrow your ancestor’s journals.”

She frowned. “Why?”

They pulled out into the main road, Elijah glancing sideways before looking at her. “Either a delaying tactic, or he believes the journals can tell us where the witches were buried. What do you think?”

Elena bit her lip. She had no idea what Damon was thinking. But it sounded as though Elijah had left him alone for the time being. “I don’t know. It could be both. Was it Damon who kidnapped Luka? What happened?”

He told her, briefly, and without explaining exactly how he had done it, but the most important thing for Elena was that no blood had been spilled. She leaned back and sighed in relief. They drove on in silence for a while.

“Have you read the journals?” Elijah asked presently.

“The ones at the lake house? Some of them. I didn’t get through them all before you took me.”

“And the ones you read contained no relevant information?”

She recognized the road they were on now; they were close. She caught a glimpse of the lake behind the trees. “They mentioned witches,” said Elena, trying to think. “Johnathan Gilbert knew a witch, Emily. He learned a lot of what he knew about vampires from her.”

The journals had implied, but not specifically stated, that Emily had told Johnathan about the Originals. She had died long before he started his research, but he’d already seemed to have an idea of what to look for. What Emily knew about Originals, she must have learned from Katherine, Elena thought. Was that deliberate? Had Katherine planned that far ahead?

She said none of this, however, watching in silence as the familiar shape of her family’s lake house appeared among the trees. Elijah pulled up and escorted her to the entrance. There was still no door. It was strange to come back here, Elena thought, after what had happened a few nights ago. Nothing seemed to have changed.

“You want me to bring you the journals?” she asked.

“Please.”

He didn’t ask to be invited in. Elena looked at him searchingly. He couldn’t have forgotten what had happened the last time they were here. If she entered this house, he wouldn’t be able to get in and she could try making him promise again, properly this time...

She nodded, and stepped inside the house.

The journals were where she had left them, strewn over a coffee table in the sitting room, and Elena gathered them up quickly, stacking them up in the cardboard box they’d been stored in. She considered the hidden room she and Stefan had discovered. It had wooden bullets, stakes, vervain... All the tools a vampire hunter needed.  
The last journal she had read still lay open, its pages displaying the illustration of the dagger that could be used to kill an Original. Elena picked it up and stared at it, biting her lip. The dagger wouldn’t work on Klaus. She believed that. She believed him.

Before she had tried to stab him, Elijah had given her his word. She believed that too. She could trust him.

If they were ever going to be in a position to make a deal again, he needed to trust her. She had to prove that to him.

Snapping the book shut, Elena made her decision.

She appeared at the lake house entrance a few seconds later, carrying the journals.

“Here,” she said, passing the box over to him without stepping over the threshold herself.

“Thank you.”

“Elijah,” she said.

She was still inside the house, just beyond his reach. Elijah put the box down, then straightened up slowly, looking at her with narrowed eyes.

“I’ll come out,” she said. “I promise. I just want you to answer one question first. That day you came into my house and offered me a deal. Why did you do that? You could have ripped away my necklace and compelled me; you could have kidnapped me there and then. So why didn’t you?”

“Making a deal was more convenient.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Really? More convenient than making me your puppet?”

“At the time, yes.”

“So why not now?”

“You’ve already had more than one question, Elena.”

She took a deep breath and stepped out, deliberately moving towards him so that she had to lift her chin to stare at him again. She wanted to challenge him. Prove that she wasn’t afraid – for what more could he do to her? He’d already kidnapped her; he already intended to kill her. He seemed to go very still as they regarded each other, but his eyes never left her face.

“I want a deal, Elijah,” she said, putting as much steel into her voice as she could. “I’ve given you the journals. I promised that I’d co-operate, and I will. I want to know that when I die, it won’t be in vain. I want my family to be safe.”

“Your loved ones,” said Elijah, “are an inconvenience.”

“Then take me away. Take me far away from Mystic Falls, somewhere they’ll never find me.”

“That’s not an option. The sacrifice must take place in the birthplace of the doppelgänger.”

She paused, surprised. She hadn’t known that. It explained a few things, like why Elijah had been so willing to let her stay at home in Mystic Falls, why he still hadn’t moved her beyond the outskirts of the town.

Elijah took advantage of her momentary silence to turn away and pick up the journals again. He indicated for her to go ahead of him. “We should be heading back.”

She felt like the wind had been taken out of her sails. Just how much more information was he withholding from her? Elijah nudged her arm with the lightest of touches, prompting her again, and she managed not to flinch. She stalked over to the car without looking back, and leaned against it as she watched Elijah pack the journals away.

“There was vervain in the house,” she said, feeling reckless. “I could have taken it.”

He closed the trunk and looked up at her. “Did you?”

“No. I thought maybe – you were giving me a chance to prove myself. You took a risk letting me go in there. Why?”

“I didn’t take a risk,” he replied smoothly. “The vervain has already left your system.”

She froze. “What?”

“I compelled you before we left the house.”

Elena gaped at him. She found herself mentally scrabbling, trying to remember when this had happened – when he’d first entered? When they were outside? She had no idea. Whatever he’d done, he’d erased it completely. She felt suddenly cold.

“What did you make me do?”

“I compelled you not to harm yourself.”

He walked over to her and she shrank back, unable to hide her fear this time. His eyes, it was all in the eyes, and she tried not to look but she couldn’t help being acutely aware of him; every fibre of her nerves, every inch of her, could feel his gaze on her, knew what he could do to her. Now that she was vulnerable to his mind control... She had no idea what to do. He could undo everything in a moment if he wanted to. Yet compelling her not to harm herself seemed like an oddly benign command. An understandable one, given that he needed her alive, but not quite what she had expected.

She let out a shaky breath. “That’s all?”

“That’s all. Now I am willing to say this, Elena: if these journals lead me to the burial ground, I will allow your friends to live.”

His offer startled her; she was so overwhelmed that for a moment she couldn’t speak. “You will?”

“I will.”

Elena thought about it. That was a big ‘if’; if Damon was lying or wrong, Elijah had given himself a loophole so that he could kill them all. Which he had probably intended anyway, she realized, if Damon misled him. But his offer was the best she was going to get under the circumstances. She would have to take the risk.

“And what do I have to do? Offer myself as a sacrifice?”

“You have no choice in that,” Elijah countered. “By doing so, you are helping me to avenge my family. I’ll return the favour by sparing yours.”

She nodded silently. In her head, she heard Stefan again, like he’d become the voice of her conscience or something: _You’re being a martyr._ But she was going to die anyway, whether she made a bargain or not.

Elijah was right. She had no choice.

*

  
Katherine poked her head into Jeremy’s room to find him packing. She raised an eyebrow. “Going somewhere?”

“Staying with Bonnie,” he replied shortly, not even looking at her.

“To get away from me? What’s the matter? I don’t bite.”

He snorted and shook his head, turning away to rummage through a drawer. That told her everything she needed to know. Jeremy’s attitude hadn’t changed; he was still treating her with bored contempt, which meant that nobody had told him about her betrayal earlier today. If he’d heard, it would at least have merited a mention. So she smiled and let him be.

Once he had gone, she was left alone in the house with John. Time to make her next move.

Katherine found him in the kitchen, as seemed to be his habit. He was forever making cups of tea or coffee. She suspected that was because he didn’t want to sleep while she was in the house, which only made her smile at the futility of it all. He flinched when he saw her, as always, and moved his bandaged hand to cover his free one.

Katherine prowled around him, never letting him forget for a second what she really was.

“I want to talk to Isobel.”

John held his ground. “I don't think that’s a good idea. Isobel’s gone to find Klaus. If he finds out you’re here, he’ll come straight to Mystic Falls.”

Katherine paused in front of him, reaching out to grasp his bandaged hand. John remained still as she held it up, examining it, and then her eyes flicked to his other hand.

“You’ve lost your ring.”

“I’m not afraid of you,” he told her quietly. “You need me to contact Isobel.”

“Believe me, that’s the only reason you’re still alive, John. Did she find Klaus? Where is she now?”

“She wouldn’t tell me her exact location.” He paused. “Are you on board with this, Katherine? Killing Klaus?”

“I’ve been running for five hundred years. I want him dead.”

“Then we need to work together.”

“Of course, John.” She smiled at him sweetly, squeezing his hand until he gasped in pain. “As long as you know who’s calling the shots.”

*

  
For the second day in a row, Jenna returned home to find Alaric waiting on the porch for her. He looked tired and strained, desperate even. She might have been flattered that he was so cut up about them breaking up if he wasn’t being so utterly _creepy_ about it.

“You know, I’m considering a restraining order.”

He seemed to steel himself before stepping forward. “I’ll tell you about Isobel,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about it today and – well, you have a right to know. I never wanted to keep secrets from you.”

That flummoxed her. So he’d had a change of heart. Jenna felt her heart rate increase, but she made up her mind on the spot, walking around him to open the door.

“You can tell me inside.”

They sat on down on the couch, and Alaric looked as tense as Jenna felt. He kept looking around.

“Is Elena here?”

“I think she’s upstairs. Why?”

“Isobel is her mother,” Alaric said. “This involves her too. At some point, we’ll all have to sit down and talk about this. But not now.” He paused, then cleared his throat. “Isobel went missing more than two years ago. I thought that she was dead, but the case was never solved.”

Another pause. She’d heard all this before. Jenna looked at him expectantly, waiting for the inevitable ‘but’.

“Then, two months ago... Isobel appeared in Mystic Falls.”

She stared at him. “What? Two months ago?” He’d known that his wife was alive for two months and he hadn’t told her. Oh, God. She could feel the tears building up already, and a tenseness in her stomach like a ball of rage getting bigger and bigger. All this time they’d been together, what if he... “Have you been seeing her for the past two months?”

“No! Jenna.” He looked honestly aghast at the thought, which placated her a little. “Just... let me explain, please. Isobel wasn’t here to see me. She came for Elena. She asked me to arrange a meeting, so I did, but she was... different. Cold. Isobel wasn’t the woman I thought she was. She wasn’t kidnapped or murdered. She ran away. She chose to abandon me. Anyway, she met Elena, but from what I know, the meeting didn’t go too well. She wasn’t really interested in getting to know her daughter. She wanted some historical artefact, something belonging to the Gilberts that John told her about.”

Jenna had opened her mouth several times to interrupt his story, but she couldn’t quite manage it. Elena knew. Elena had met her birth mother, and hadn’t even mentioned it. She’d been thinking that Alaric might have betrayed her in some way, but now Elena too? And John, she thought. He was Elena’s father; he knew Isobel. It sounded like John was the reason Isobel came to Mystic Falls in the first place.

“So that’s how John knows,” she muttered. She shook her head, suppressing a bitter chuckle. “What do you mean a historical artefact?”

“Isobel was a researcher. Some of her work involved local history. But she was willing to use her connection with Elena to get what she wanted, even though she didn’t want to get to know Elena.”

“Elena never said anything. She...”

“She was upset. I think she wanted to forget that it had ever happened. She asked me not to say anything. I’m sorry, Jenna. I wanted to be honest with you. I want to be more honest with you...”

“Then why don’t you be, Ric?”

Jenna turned, startled. Elena had appeared in the doorway, John at her shoulder. She was wearing a smug expression that seemed entirely uncharacteristic of Elena – and much more like her father.

“Elena,” said Jenna, her voice cracking. “Why didn’t you tell me about Isobel? You didn’t tell me about John, you didn’t tell me this... What else are you keeping from me?”

Elena’s face softened. “I’m sorry, Jenna. Truly, I am. But I’ve been keeping secrets because this knowledge is dangerous.”

She stepped into the room, walking so lightly that Jenna couldn’t hear her footfalls at all, or maybe that was because of the ringing in her ears. Dangerous knowledge? Alaric had gone all tense next to her. What was it they didn’t want her to know?

“You’re not making sense,” she said. “Any of you. Can one of you be straight with me, please?”

Elena sat down on the couch next to her, on the opposite side to Alaric, and reached out to take her hands. Her voice was low and sincere. “Isobel did die. She was killed almost three years ago now.”

Jenna found herself shaking. She looked between Elena and Alaric, utterly confused. “What?”

“Katherine,” said Alaric.

“Who’s Katherine?” Jenna began to ask, but she was shocked into silence by Alaric’s next words.

“I swear to God, if you hurt her, I will kill you.”

“I’m not the one you have to worry about,” Elena hissed. “Jenna, listen. Alaric wasn’t lying just now, he was being... economical with the truth. Isobel did die, but she came back. As a vampire.”

Those last three words hung in the air: heavy, dark, completely ridiculous. Jenna couldn’t even speak. She looked at Alaric, whose resigned expression told her everything, and then at John who had been watching everything from the doorway.

John nodded, folding his arms. “It’s true.”

“No,” said Jenna. Her body was screaming at her, telling her to get the hell away. She sprang up and backed away from all of them, shaking her head. “No, this is stupid, this is – if this is some sick kind of practical joke, I’m telling you now that it is not funny.”

“I’m telling you the truth,” said Elena. “Let me show you.”

“No,” said Alaric, standing up – he immediately shifted to stand in front of her as if to defend her, and Jenna stared, bewildered, as she saw that the couch was empty. It took another second for her brain to catch up with her senses and spot that Elena was suddenly next to John – she’d moved so fast that Jenna hadn’t even seen it – and Elena’s face was... was...

She felt like hyperventilating. Her niece had sprouted fangs. There was no therapy in the world that could prepare for this. Alaric reached out for her and she hung on to his arm for dear life, sure that she would collapse on her feet otherwise.

John was trying to hold Elena at arm’s length as she bared her fangs at him; she would have enjoyed the horrified expression on his face if it hadn’t been caused by her niece being a _freaking vampire_.

“Oh, God,” said Jenna. “Oh, God.”

“That’s not Elena.” Alaric’s grip was tight. “Elena is human, Jenna, okay, that’s not–”

Elena’s face had returned to normal. She smiled, and her gaze was hard in a way that wasn’t Elena at all. “Glad I can finally introduce myself. I’m Katherine.”


	8. Finders Keepers

“The first thing you need to know,” said Katherine, “is that I’m not a threat to you.”

“No,” said Alaric. “The first thing you need to know is that Katherine is a liar and a double-crossing, heartless bitch. She made you stab yourself, Jenna.”

“What?”

Well, that wasn’t how Katherine wanted this conversation to go. It was almost worth it to see the startled look on Jenna’s face, but... hmm, no.

“Mmm, that’s enough from you, Ric.” She snatched him away from Jenna in the blink of an eye, caressing his throat almost lovingly. Alaric let out a strangled shout as his hands flew up to try and pry hers from his neck, defiant to the end. She purred into his ear. “Damon isn’t here to protect you now. Try not to insult me.”

The crack of his neck snapping was most satisfying. Even more so was Jenna’s choked cry. The poor woman was frozen in horror, but Katherine soon fixed that. She blurred over and settled her fingers around Jenna’s jaw. Then she gazed into her faux aunt’s eyes.

“Alaric went home. The two of you broke up and you probably won’t see him again.”

“I probably won’t see him again,” Jenna murmured, entranced.

“You can trust me,” Katherine whispered.

“I can trust you.”

“I’m on your side.”

“You’re–”

“Enough.” Katherine shushed Jenna with a finger to her lips. “Go into the kitchen and make us some coffee. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

Jenna left obediently, passing by John who was looking particularly pale today. Katherine turned to him, nudging Alaric’s body with her toe.

“I trust you’ll take care of this?”

He stared at her. “What are you doing?”

She shrugged. “Getting Jenna on our side. Would you rather I killed her?”

It was a pointed question and John hastily backtracked, changing the subject. “Is there a reason you decided to tell her the truth? Or are you going to make her forget?”

“I won’t make her forget,” said Katherine. “There’s a very good reason, actually. Klaus is coming and I don’t want him in this house. Jenna needs to stop inviting in every single vampire who passes through this town.”

He frowned. “What makes you think that Klaus is coming?”

“Because Elijah is about to find the last thing he needs to perform the sacrifice.” She saw him blanch at that and knew that he was thinking of his daughter, but gave him no time to argue. “Here,” said Katherine, picking up Alaric’s body and passing him over to John like so much dead meat. “Take him.”

John glanced down at Alaric, unable to avoid making a face at the way his neck was twisted, his head lolling. “You didn’t have to kill him.”

It was a pointless remark; they both knew it. Katherine was a murderer and John expected her to be nothing less. She shrugged. “He got in my way.”

They stared at each other, and Katherine let her silent implication sink in. _Don’t get in my way, John. You’ll end up the same way._

John swallowed. “He’s wearing the ring.”

“So take it off him. Go.”

He half-stumbled, half-carried Alaric out of the house and by a happy coincidence, Jenna chose that moment to call out that the coffee was ready. Katherine smiled and sauntered into the kitchen. She had quite a story to tell.

*

  
The faintest of light from outside indicated that the sun was rising. Damon had slept fitfully, but while vampire healing eased the ache in his neck and back, it couldn’t make the cave floor any more comfortable. Stefan woke up in the early hours of the morning, and listened in silence when Damon explained what had happened.

“So are those journals a wild goose chase,” Stefan asked, “or do you really think the answer might be in there?”

“Not sure. But Emily was around in 1864. Maybe she mentioned something.”

Stefan leaned back against the wall, sighing. “Maybe she did.”

They didn’t talk about the inevitable. Without the information that Elijah needed, they were dead, that was guaranteed. Even with the information in the journals, Elijah would simply kill them as soon as he found it. He supposed that Caroline or Alaric might be out there trying to find them, but they couldn’t count on that. The more he considered his options, the more he couldn’t see any way out.

“We failed her, Stef.”

“She’s not alone,” said Stefan. “There’s Caroline, Bonnie...”

He snorted. “They won’t last five minutes after we’re gone.”

“So you’re giving up?”

“Just stating the facts, brother.”

There was a long silence. Damon closed his eyes and tried not to think of Katherine, how she had sent them both to their deaths. So much for love.

Stefan cleared his throat. “Well, if this is it... There’s something I should say.”

Damon snapped his eyes open. “You don’t have to. I know.”

“I’m sorry,” said Stefan.

He didn’t say what for. Damon could only suppose he was apologizing for a century and a half’s worth of... well, everything. He gazed at the shadowy figure of his brother and wished that he didn’t care about him. Then all this would hurt so much less.

“We’re not dead yet,” said Damon. “Let’s save the heartfelt goodbyes for the bitter end.”

They lapsed into silence, and then dawn came. This might be the bitter end, Damon thought, when he heard the gate being opened, the scrape of iron on rock. Elijah was punctual. He appeared silently in front of Damon and handed him a book. No, not a book. One of the Gilbert journals.

“Goodbye present?” Damon cracked.

“This journal states that Emily Bennett was buried at the same location as her ancestors,” said Elijah.

“Oh,” said Damon, trying to sound casual though his mind was suddenly racing. He’d been there when Emily was hunted down. He’d tried to save her, had helped her children to escape but he’d been too late to rescue Emily. He knew where she was buried. He’d seen it. “Does it say where?”

“No.”

Damon raised his eyebrows. “Well, that’s too bad. Looks like you can’t kill me after all.”

Elijah’s voice was curt and controlled, but Damon could hear the note of irritation in it. “Do you know where she was buried?”

He grinned, showing his teeth. “Yes, I do. Why don’t I show you? Of course, you’ll have to let me and Stefan go first.”

Elijah leaned down to unlock the chains. “Nice try. Stefan stays here. I’ll release him after you show me the burial ground.”

Damon got to his feet, not entirely smoothly – he wasn’t feeling at his best, but all the human blood in the world wouldn’t make him strong enough to fight Elijah, so he figured it made little difference. He shot a glance at Stefan over his shoulder before departing. _Trust me, brother. If I can get us out of this mess, I will._

Stefan’s anxious look stayed with him.

*

  
Caroline’s heart was fluttering nervously as she pulled up outside Bonnie’s house. They were running out of safe places to stay, she thought. She’d barely slept last night, terrified that Katherine would appear and kill her in her bed. She’d had a nightmare about it so vivid that she’d woken up cold and clammy and stared around, eyes wide with fear, until she was sure that the bedroom was indeed empty.

Earlier that morning, her mother had even noticed what a state she was in, and she’d had to make up a story about how she’d broken up with Matt.

Well, no. That was true. But being worried that she might be murdered at any moment did have a way of putting things into perspective.

She took a deep breath and knocked on the door. Almost at once, a man wearing a suit and a frown answered it.

“Caroline? It’s seven a.m.”

“Hi, Mr Bennett!” said Caroline brightly. “I’m here to pick Bonnie up for the thing at school; we have to be early... She didn’t forget, did she?”

“Well, she’s not up,” he said, “so probably. Go ahead and wake her; I need to go.”

He slipped past her, just avoiding whacking her knees with his briefcase, and Caroline bid him a cheery goodbye. A moment later, she looked at the door which he’d left open and remembered that she hadn’t been invited in.

Darn. Sometimes, being a vampire _sucked_.

“Bonnie?” she called. She glanced back and saw that Mr Bennett was already reversing out of the driveway, taking no notice of her. “Bonnie?”

When that got no response, she tried her cell phone and sighed in relief when the call connected.

“Caroline?”

“I’m at the door. Let me in, please?”

“Oh... Just a sec.”

She heard the rustling of sheets, then quite distinctly, Jeremy’s voice added, “What’s up, is something wrong?”

By the time Bonnie got to the door, wearing a nightdress with a dressing gown hastily thrown over the top, all Caroline had to do was raise an eyebrow.

Bonnie looked at her. “What?”

“Sounds like you got lucky last night.”

There was a pause as Bonnie’s eyes widened, and then she laughed. “Oh!” She opened her mouth a couple of times before finding the right words. “No – we didn’t – it’s not like that. Come in, I’ll explain.”

The invite was so casual, but somehow it took Caroline by surprise. She hadn’t been a vampire for long, and the memory of Bonnie’s initial reaction still hurt. Bonnie had only recently come to accept who she was now. She smiled in genuine gratitude.

“Thank you.”

Bonnie nodded, squeezing her arm as Caroline entered the house. She called Jeremy and then they all sat down to have breakfast.

“Sorry, I don’t stock any vamp drinks,” said Bonnie. “Will apple squash do?”

“Apple squash sounds great.”

“So what’s with the early morning wake-up call?” Jeremy asked. He was slouching in his chair, still looking sleepy.

Caroline stared at Bonnie, who suddenly looked guilty. “You haven’t told him?”  
Jeremy frowned. “Told me what?”

As soon as they’d explained, Jeremy leapt out of his chair, furious. He glared at Bonnie. “You mean to say you lured me out here–”

“I didn’t lure you!” Bonnie interjected.

“–just to, I don’t know, keep me quiet and you didn’t even think I should know that Stefan and Damon were kidnapped?”

Bonnie was shaking her head. “I’m sorry! I didn’t know what to do; I just wanted to make sure you were safe...”

“By keeping me in the dark.”

His voice quivered with rage. Caroline saw the tears filling her friend’s eyes and knew she had to intervene.

“Look, Jeremy,” she said. “I’m sorry we didn’t involve you. But we don’t have time for this. For all we know, Stefan and Damon are – are already dead and we’re the only ones left who can save Elena. We need to focus. Think of a plan, think of some way to deal with Katherine, and in the meantime we have to look out for each other. No one else is going to keep us safe. It’s up to us now.”

She stared at both of them, her gaze hard and determined, and maybe it was something in her voice or she’d managed to find the right words somehow, but both Bonnie and Jeremy seemed to calm down. Jeremy sank back into his chair; Bonnie wiped her eyes and nodded.

“But what can we do?” Jeremy asked.

That was the million dollar question. Caroline took a deep breath. “I have an idea. But I wanted to run it by you all first.”

“What is it?”

“I’m going to tell my mom about Katherine.”

*

  
“You’re a vampire,” said Jenna shakily. Start with the obvious, she thought. After everything Katherine had told her last night, it was all she could do to sit up straight, let alone have a conversation. She’d woken up with the fleeting wish that it might all have been a dream, but no. There was a vampire sitting in front of her who was the double of her niece.

Jenna figured no one could object if she had extra-strong coffee this morning.

“I think we already covered that part,” said Katherine, amused, “but yes. Do you have more questions?”

“You look exactly like Elena because...”

“I’m her ancestor.”

“That doesn’t really explain it.”

They looked like they could be twins. Genetically identical. Distant relations didn’t cut it.

Katherine smiled, sipping her coffee. “It’s more like reincarnation. Elena and I are both doppelgängers of a woman who lived thousands of years ago. We’re tied to an ancient curse...”

“You mean the curse of the sun and the moon. The one Elijah is trying to break.”

Look at that, she had been paying attention. Though Jenna still couldn’t quite believe that phrases like ‘the curse of the sun and the moon’ were passing her lips in a serious manner.

Katherine nodded. “That’s the one. If the Originals break it... there’s no stopping them. We can’t let them do it. We can’t let Elena be sacrificed.”

Jenna could only nod her head mutely. That had definitely been the worst part of Katherine’s story. Not only had she discovered that a vampire had been living in her house for the past couple of days, she had also learned that Elena had been kidnapped by an evil Original vampire in order to sacrifice her in some ritual during the next full moon.

_I mean, really. You couldn’t make this stuff up._

“Does anyone else know about this?” she asked. “Apart from John.”

“Alaric knows,” Katherine replied, “as you probably guessed.”

She felt only anger hearing Alaric’s name. It had turned out that he was keeping a lot more from her than she had thought.

“And Elena, of course,” Katherine went on. “Stefan and Damon too.”

“They’ve all been keeping this secret from me. Not just Isobel. Everything...”

It was too big to comprehend. The idea that Elena was being hunted down by every vampire who wanted to break the curse...

“I’m sorry,” said Katherine. “If it helps, they were only trying to protect you.”

She laughed. “Protect me? Two seventeen year old kids wanted to protect me?”

“They thought they were doing the right thing.”

“And now that Elena’s been kidnapped? Do they think they can do something about that too?”

Katherine leaned forward, her liquid dark eyes seeming to sink right into her. “Don’t tell them that you know about Elena. We’re going to fix this little problem ourselves, okay?”

Her voice was intoxicating. Mesmerized, Jenna nodded. “I won’t tell them. We’ll fix it ourselves.”

“Good. Now, have you ever heard of a plant called vervain?”

*

  
“So where’s Elena?” Damon asked conversationally.

“Safe.”

“Anything I can do to get her back?”

“No.” Elijah paused as an old house came into sight beyond the trees. “Is this the place?”

“Yep. The house was built on top of the graveyard. People always claimed that it was haunted though. Guess that’s why they abandoned it.”

He glanced sideways at Elijah but the Original’s response was non-committal. “We’ll see.”

That was how he had answered every question – the ones he had answered: vague, short responses, refusing to give Damon any angle to work with. The conversation reflected this entire trip: it was a one way street.

Damon gave up. They were here now, and Elijah’s reasons for not killing him were becoming weaker and weaker. Best not to piss him off. They entered the house, Elijah in front but glancing back to keep Damon in sight at all times. Damon remembered this house back when it had been occupied, but he hadn’t been inside before since he’d never obtained an invite. Later, when it was abandoned, he had no interest in it. It was pretty much standard as far as abandoned buildings went: dirty, dusty, the furnishings all rotten.

The place reminded him of the house where Elena had been kidnapped by Rose, and where he had staked Elijah. Perhaps Elijah was remembering the same thing; he gave Damon a wry look before stepping through into the next room, looking around with interest.

Damon was fighting the instinct to bolt; with every slight increase of the distance between them, he was calculating his chances, but he still didn’t know exactly how fast Elijah was. And his head told him that Elijah wouldn’t stray far enough that he’d be unable to catch him.

A shaft of sunlight pierced through a window, illuminating the middle of the room. Piles of old books were strewn around, along with the remains of century-old furniture. Chandeliers hinted that this place once belonged to the noble and wealthy. Damon hung back in the shadows, wondering if he could just let Elijah wander away from him. Elijah picked up a mouldy old book, brushed the dust away from it, and turned a few pages. What he saw didn’t appear to interest him though, because he put it back down a moment later and turned to look at Damon.

Elijah frowned. He made a slight movement, but it almost looked like he had hit a dead end; his feet were firmly planted on the ground, right in the middle of the shaft of sunlight. He tried again, with the same result.

Damon raised his eyebrows. What was going on?

“Stop this,” Elijah rasped. “What are you doing?”

“I’m not doing anything.” Damon moved forward, hardly daring to believe it. “You can’t move.”

His skin prickled as he looked around, wondering. He’d felt no presence upon entering the house, no sense of foreboding or sudden cold or any of the other usual ghostly signs. And yet, if proof were needed that this house was haunted... The invisible force still had Elijah in its grip; he was seething, staring at Damon with impotent fury. Damon grinned suddenly. In one swift movement, he snatched Elijah’s ring from his finger and stepped away.

Elijah’s eyes widened. “No! Stop!”

He struggled visibly, but whatever magic was keeping him there held on tight. Damon watched the sun do its work, fascinated, and a hissing sound filled the air as Elijah’s skin burned. He was healing so fast that it never looked as though he had anything worse than a sunburn, but he was clearly in pain. Elijah growled, a guttural sound deep in his throat, part anger and part pain; he managed to inch forward half a step with one foot and Damon realized that this wasn’t going to last much longer.

He wasted no time.

Picking up a broken chair, Damon snapped off the leg and drove the makeshift stake into Elijah’s heart. Elijah’s last gargling cry was music to his ears. Once the older vampire had collapsed, all grey and corpse-like, Damon knelt down and swiftly searched his body.

“Jackpot,” he murmured, when his fingers closed around the moonstone. He pocketed both moonstone and ring, then stood up and looked around. “Emily. Keep him down as long as you can.”

And then Damon got the hell out of there.

*

  
Elena hated being in the dark. Hated it. Before all the craziness with vampires, witches and werewolves, she used to always want to be the first to hear high school gossip. She and Caroline had their noses in everyone’s business, she shared everything with Bonnie, and if ever she had the slightest hint that any of them were doing something without her, she wouldn’t stop until she found out what it was. It made surprise birthday parties a little less surprising, but in the end Elena’s relationships were always rooted in openness and trust, and that was what she valued the most.

Alone in this house, Elena had no idea what was happening with any of her friends and the stakes were far higher than anything she could have imagined a year ago. She couldn’t stand it.

Her mouth was dry. She couldn’t eat. She retreated to the bedroom, shut the door and curtains, and tried to cocoon herself away, to sleep.

So she didn’t hear the knock at the door. Her first hint was Irene’s soft voice outside the bedroom.

“Elena? Are you awake?”

She sat up, alert at once. “Yeah, come in. What is it?”

Irene opened the door a fraction. “You have a visitor.”

“What?”

Elena scrambled off the bed, smoothing down her rumpled clothes as she hurried after Irene. A visitor? How on earth could she have a visitor? It couldn’t be Elijah; he would have gone straight inside the house. Stefan or Damon, she thought. If they were at the door, that was probably because they couldn’t get in, so it had to be a vampire. The only problem was, while they couldn’t get in, she couldn’t get out. Elijah had compelled her to stay in the house. But at least if they had found her, they could do something, make a plan...

Her thoughts were tumbling as fast as her footsteps as she ran down the stairs and to the door. Elena skidded to a halt at the entrance. Her mouth fell open.  
It wasn’t Stefan or Damon.

“Hello, Elena.” Isobel smiled. “I finally found you.”


	9. Offers

Of all the people who might turn up to rescue her, Elena had definitely not expected Isobel to be on that list. Her birth mother looked the same as ever, a cold smile on her lips, expression giving nothing away. Elena immediately took a half-step back, caught between wariness and surprise. The last time Isobel had visited Mystic Falls, she had shown no interest in the welfare of her daughter. Whatever her agenda was this time, Elena doubted it was anything good.

Irene appeared at her shoulder, saying, “So who’s this?”

Isobel caught the woman’s gaze at once. “Go back inside. This visit never happened.”  
Elena felt Irene retreat, leaving her standing alone to face her birth mother. She folded her arms, mouth tight. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to deliver a message.” Isobel’s tone was matter-of-fact. “We will get you out of here.”

Elena shook her head, bewildered. “How? What’s going on?”

“I know that you have a lot of questions, Elena, but I don’t have much time. Just know that help is coming.”

“Stefan and Damon?”

“They’re alive,” Isobel confirmed. “And everyone else you care about.”

Hearing that was like being given a lifeline; Elena wanted desperately to believe her. But this was Isobel. Her vampire birth mother, who had made it very clear that she only saw Elena as a means to an end. Elena couldn’t trust her.

“Then why aren’t they here? Why are you the messenger?”

“Because I’m the only one who knew how to find you. Listen carefully. I assume Elijah compelled you not to leave the house?”

Elena nodded.

“Then take this.” She drew out a tiny plastic wallet from her bag and tossed it to Elena, who caught it. Inside the wallet was a sprig of vervain. Elena tucked it inside her jean pocket as Isobel went on: “You need to convince Elijah to take you out somewhere. I’ll return in three days to check on you. But you must break his compulsion, Elena, do you understand? It’s our only chance to help you escape.”

She didn’t know how to react. Giving her vervain, offering her help... What was Isobel up to? Elena bit her lip.

“What about Elijah?”

“I know how to deal with Elijah,” said Isobel, smiling slightly. That look reminded her that her mother was a vampire, and Elena shivered. She twitched at some sound Elena couldn’t hear. “I have to go. Don’t tell Elijah that I was here.”

That was it; Isobel turned, becoming a silhouette in the bright light outside, and then she was gone, and the woods and fields once more stretched out over the horizon, empty. She left Elena shivering, clutching the vervain inside her pocket, wondering who on earth to put her trust in. The mother who had been working with Katherine? Or the Original who intended to kill her?

*

  
It could be a matter of minutes or hours before Elijah woke up and removed the stake from his heart. Damon didn’t know how long, but he did know that without his ring Elijah would not be able to go anywhere during the day, at least not without suffering some discomfort. Until darkness fell, they should be safe to move around.

He therefore hauled his brother out of the Lockwood dungeon with little ceremony, and presented him with Elijah’s ring.

“Why are you giving me this?” Stefan asked, clearly still stupid from his lack of feeding on bunnies lately.

“Leverage,” said Damon. “You keep the ring, I’ll hide the moonstone; we both have something to bargain with. Should let us keep our heads for a little longer.”

“Katherine’s working with him,” Stefan growled. “If anyone should lose their head, it’s her.”

“Agreed, brother. Why don’t we pay her a visit?”

An hour later, they were newly fed, changed and presentable enough to turn up at the Gilbert house with a smile. At least, Damon smiled. Stefan’s brow was furrowed as usual. Thanks to Elijah, they had both lost their cell phones, which meant that they had no idea of the current situation with Caroline, Bonnie or Alaric. Damon intended to rectify this soon, but Katherine came first.

He couldn’t express how much he hated her. No more messing around with tombs. The next time he saw her, he was going to ram a stake through her treacherous heart and be done with it.

She wasn’t at the house, however. Jenna answered the door and did a double take when she saw both of them.

“Shouldn’t you be at school?” She licked her lips and shook her head nervously. “I mean, Stefan. Not you, Damon, obviously... What are you doing here?”

“Is Elena in?” Stefan asked.

“No.” But there was something shifty about Jenna’s expression; she wouldn’t meet their eyes. “She’s at school. Is something wrong?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” said Damon.

She looked at him for a moment, very much rabbit caught in the headlights. Stefan glanced at him in alarm.

“If it’s about the other night,” said Damon, “I’m sorry if I came off as a jerk. I’m working on that.”

Jenna took a deep breath. “You know, I’ve been keeping pretty quiet about this thing between you and Elena.”

“Uh, thing?” said Stefan, but she talked right over him.

“I figured, Elena’s a sensible girl, she knows what she’s doing. It’s not my business. But what I really don’t appreciate is the two of you coming over like you own her or something – one, you’re not her boyfriend, Damon – and two, I like you, Stefan, but you should know that Elena’s at school because you ought to be there yourself, and I get that you don’t have parents or whatever, but I’m Elena’s legal guardian and I’m the one who’s supposed to look out for her. That is my business. And finally, apparently all of you knew that Isobel was still around, but I guess I don’t need to know, right? Never mind that I’m Elena’s legal parent and that I was dating the guy Isobel used to be married to. What does that count for? Anything?”

That all burst out of her in almost one breath and Damon raised his hands, stepping back. “Okaaaay. So I’m guessing Ric filled you in?”

“What did he tell you?” Stefan asked.

“Enough,” said Jenna, her nostrils flaring. “Elena’s at school. Go find her there.”

“Jenna,” said Stefan quietly. “I’m sorry about Isobel. Elena asked us to keep it quiet... It wasn’t our place to say.”

She shook her head and smiled bitterly. “Yeah, I get that. Okay. I’m still mad over it. It’s just...”

“I understand,” said Stefan.

Damon kept quiet. The understanding stuff was best left to his brother, but now that they knew where Katherine was, he was impatient to be off. He gave Stefan a pointed look and his brother went on:

“We’ve gotta go, but if you want to talk about this any time...”

“Sure.” Jenna nodded, but it was obvious by this point that she wanted to be rid of them.

They said their goodbyes and as soon as Jenna had shut the door, Damon zipped over to his car, Stefan following.

“What do you think?” he asked, as he started the engine. “No ‘v’ word mentioned, but...”

Stefan frowned. “I don’t know. She seemed on edge, but for all we know Katherine got to her. If Katherine’s compelling her...”

They could be in trouble. But that wasn’t anything new. Just another thing to add to the growing list of problems not yet dealt with. Damon shook his head grimly. Time for school. He pulled up outside Mystic Falls High and waited while Stefan disappeared to get Katherine. Several groups of students were hanging about nearby; Damon leaned against his car and amused himself by picking out the ones he’d like to hunt down and feed on. Then his gaze fell on a familiar face: Jeremy.

The kid was walking by himself, hunched over with an iPod in his ears. No point shouting then. Damon considered approaching him when Jeremy looked up and spotted him. He hurried over at once.

“Damon! Hey! You’re...”

“Alive? I know. Miracle, huh?”

“Yeah! What are you doing here? What happened?”

Jeremy looked honestly pleased to see him. Damon almost shook his head. Killing Jeremy appeared to have created some weird kind of attachment in the kid’s head. But he had a stake in Elena’s welfare too, and at this point they needed all the allies they could get.

“We’re here to fetch Katherine,” Damon told him, and Jeremy suddenly looked nervous.  
“What?”

“About Katherine... We already decided to do something about her.”

Damon swore when he heard the story. He took back any praise he’d ever had for her. Caroline was not in any way, shape or form an effective vampire. She was a liability, and now he had yet another problem to fix.

“Tell Stefan I’ll meet him at the boarding house. I’ll take care of this.”

*

  
Finding a secluded area inside the school grounds was difficult, but Katherine had done it. She had tucked herself away by the empty football field, in a corner of the stadium where few people would notice them. Matt was with her.

“I’m sorry to hear about you and Caroline,” she said. “I’ve been hearing it all from Caroline’s side, and well, you know how one person’s side of the story can be.”

“Yeah,” said Matt heavily.

She’d already subtly tested him to see if he was immune to compulsion, and found that he was. Somebody was slipping him vervain. It had been easy enough to get Jenna off it, but Katherine didn’t know what the source was for this one – though she was certain that she knew who it was. So she had to be careful, but Katherine had long ago mastered the art of getting what she wanted with or without compulsion.

“This thing with Tyler,” said Katherine delicately, “you know there’s more to it than she told you, right?”

“Right now, I don’t know what to believe.”

“Well, there’s a reason Caroline and I aren’t getting on so well right now. And because I’m your friend, Matt, I think that you deserve the truth.” She shifted a little closer to him, looking him straight in the eyes, and knew that she had him hooked without the use of compulsion. She took a breath. “There was something going on between Caroline and Tyler. They both went behind your back. I’m sorry.”

He swallowed. “I... I thought there might be. Tyler said so, but then he left...”

“I’m pretty sure that it’s been going on for longer than you thought, Matt.”

She watched his face fall, her expression full of insincere concern. Kindness hurt people so beautifully. He was almost in tears.

“And you knew?”

“It’s why I fell out with Caroline,” she said softly. “I hated seeing her doing that to you. You deserve better than that.” She lifted a hand to stroke his cheek. “You deserve someone who will be honest with you, who would never betray you...”

“Elena...”

He swallowed again, but this time she knew it was for a different reason. Katherine leaned in, hand slipping down to clasp his shoulder. She saw his eyes flick to her mouth, sensed his hesitation, but waited for him to finally close the distance between them. They kissed, and Katherine enjoyed the feel of his lips against hers for all of two seconds before Matt pulled away, eyes wide.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have done that. You and Stefan...”

She resisted an eye roll. “Stefan and I broke up.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No... We’ve been rocky for a while, so I thought it was finally time to end it.”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry. But this – what just happened – I’m not ready for it. I guess... It’s stupid of me, talking to one ex-girlfriend about another ex-girlfriend and not thinking that it’d be awkward.”

Katherine leaned back again, folding her hands in her lap. “No, it’s okay. I know I kind of dropped that on you; there wasn’t really any gentle way of saying it.”

“No, I’m glad you did. You’re being a good friend, Elena.”

Oh, he was so nice. It was adorable. The nice, trusting ones were always the easiest to fool. In a way, he reminded her of Damon back in 1864, but of course with Matt she had the advantage of looking exactly like his old flame. Katherine disliked Elena in just about every way, but she had to admit that Elena had good taste in men.

She smiled. “Well, if there’s anything I can do to help, to make it better, I’d like to. I know that despite everything, you miss Tyler. Don’t you? You guys were such good friends.”

“I do,” he admitted.

“I don’t know for sure, but I think part of the reason Tyler left was guilt over what he did to you. Do you have any way to contact him?” she asked. “You must feel so awful to have parted like this.”

He shrugged. “I tried. I’ve left him messages. Nothing.”

“Could I try? I lost my phone and got a new one recently, so I don’t have his number...”

“You can have it, and mine again, but you’re probably wasting your time. Thanks for trying though. Although if he came back, I’m not sure if I’d hug him or punch him.”

He smiled wryly and she laughed. They exchanged phone numbers just as the bell rang, prompting Matt to dash off for swimming practice or whatever kind of jock thing he did. Katherine was just picturing that as she strolled across the school grounds when an unexpected face turned up.

“Stefan!” she said. “What a pleasant surprise.”

Behind her pleasure at seeing him alive, there was genuine apprehension. She’d expected Elijah to have killed them by now. This could throw a spanner in the works regarding her plans for Jenna... Stefan had her arm locked in a vice-like grip at once, and she could practically hear the growling deep in his chest. She allowed him to spin her to face him, smiling at his roughness.

“Come with me,” he hissed.

“But I’m late for class,” said Katherine innocently. “Oh, wait. Last period is history and Mr Saltzman isn’t here, so I guess we got lucky. Shall we?”

Just like that, she’d caught him off-guard. “Alaric? What have you done?”

“Ask John.”

He became very still for a moment and she wondered if she’d gone too far. Then Stefan spoke, his voice quiet and menacing enough to send shivers down her spine. “You betrayed us. You sent Damon and me to our deaths. Why?”

“Elijah found me. I didn’t have a choice.”

“You’re on vervain. You had a choice.”

She curled her hands around his arms, leaning up to whisper to him. “I didn’t, Stefan. I’m sorry. But now that you’re okay, I can help you. Going after the witches was a mistake. If you want to save Elena, you have to take out Elijah first. Let me help you do it.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because I love you, Stefan.”

He snorted. “That’s not gonna cut it.”

“Because the second I’m no use to Elijah, he’ll kill me. You know that I’ll do anything to survive. I want Elijah taken out before he takes me out. Same goes for Klaus when he turns up.”

There was a reason he could believe. Katherine’s gaze was calculated as she judged the suspicion in his eyes. He didn’t trust her. But that was okay; she could work with mistrust almost as easily as people who believed every word she said. It was a different game, a more difficult one, playing all sides. She had to adjust quickly. Still, she could see Stefan hesitating. He wanted answers. That meant he needed her, and as long as she was needed, Katherine could continue to pull the strings.

“Come with me,” Stefan said again. “Damon and I would like a word.”

*

  
This was one of the most difficult things Caroline had ever done. As she stepped inside the police station and asked to see her mother, she found herself trembling. She, Bonnie and Jeremy had concocted a story, one that didn’t involve confessing that she was a vampire or giving much away about what else was going on. She was a terrible liar though. Bonnie and Jeremy had both offered to speak to her mom instead, but it was her idea. Caroline figured that she ought to carry it out.

She was ushered into the sheriff’s office where she found her mom looking worried. “Caroline, what are you doing here?”

“I have something to tell you,” Caroline began, shutting the door behind her. “It’s about vampires.”

It was best to come straight out with it, she thought, before she lost her nerve. She just had to lay it all out there, and then they could figure out what to do.  
Her mom turned white. “Vampires?”

“I know they exist,” said Caroline doggedly, “and I know you know about them. There’s one in town. She’s pretending to be Elena–”

“What?” Liz stood up, her eyes wide and disbelieving. “You mean Elena is–”

“No! Her name’s Katherine. She only looks like Elena, she’s not really her, she’s impersonating Elena...”

“Wait, wait.” Liz walked over to take her hand and Caroline almost flinched. It was unbearable, being afraid of her own mother. She hated it. “Start from the beginning,” her mom said.

But Caroline had barely begun to explain when they were interrupted by a knock at the door. She turned, startled into silence, and whoever it was didn’t wait to be invited in; the door opened and she stared in shock as Damon walked in. He shot her a hard look before turning his attention to her mother.

“Liz, I’m sorry to barge in, but we need to talk.”

Liz shook her head. “What are you doing here?”

“I think he’s here for the same reason I am,” Caroline interrupted, finding her tongue. “I told her about Katherine, Damon.”

She was fairly sure that the only reason Damon hadn’t yet throttled her was because her mom was in the room. Caroline trembled. She was swiftly beginning to regret this idea – but she hadn’t known that Damon had survived. Everyone thought that they wouldn’t be coming back.

“What’s going on?” her mom demanded, looking between both of them.

Damon looked at her. “What did you tell her?”

“Only that Katherine’s here pretending to be Elena and she’s a vampire. I didn’t have time to explain.”

“You knew that my daughter knows vampires exist?” Liz asked, and Caroline sensed the danger in her tone. Whenever her mom starting calling Caroline ‘her daughter’, that meant she was mad or being overprotective. Probably both.

“I can explain,” said Caroline, shooting a glance at Damon. She placed a hand on both Liz’s and Damon’s arms, trying to quell them. “Let me explain. I’ve known about vampires ever since... Ever since Logan Fell grabbed me. I saw what he was before Damon saved me. I was so scared, but Damon promised me that you and he would take care of it, and that I didn’t have anything to worry about. He told me not to say anything; he thought I’d be safer that way.”

She looked at Damon again, who managed to act as though this story wasn’t new. He was good at that though, she thought. He’d been lying to her mother all this time.

“I’m sorry, Liz,” said Damon, all contrite. “I never wanted Caroline involved in all this. But then Katherine came along...”

Her mother’s mouth trembled for a moment, and then she nodded. “Who’s Katherine?”

“A very old and very powerful vampire,” said Damon. “She’s too much for your deputies to deal with, believe me.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I’ve witnessed it. Please, Liz. I need you to trust me. Let me handle this.”

Caroline stepped back, biting her lip, as she watched the indecision on her mother’s face.

“If there’s a vampire threatening my daughter’s safety,” said Liz, “I can’t stand around and do nothing.”

“The second she knows you know about her, you’re dead.” Damon snapped his fingers. “I’m saying this as your friend, Liz. I don’t want to see you and your deputies rushing in there and getting yourselves killed.”

“I know the risk I take every day,” Liz told him. “I signed up for this; you didn’t. I appreciate everything that you’ve done for this town, Damon, but it’s my job to protect it. Caroline came to me because she was scared. Tell me more about this vampire. Let me help.”

Caroline looked at Damon helplessly. She could see the tenseness in his shoulders, but there was nothing either of them could do now – unless they decided to shove her mom in the Salvatore basement for three days again.

“She could help,” said Caroline softly. “That’s why I came to her.”

“All right,” said Damon at last. “But no rushing in there.”

Between them, they got her mom to agree that she wouldn’t act without consulting Damon first, even though she was obviously reluctant. They also explained to a bewildered Liz that Elena was an exact duplicate of Katherine, and that they were distantly related. If Damon hadn’t been there, Caroline was sure that her mom wouldn’t have believed her, but it was clear that Liz trusted him.

“I can take Caroline home,” Damon offered.

Liz smiled tiredly. “Thanks. I’ll be in touch.”

Damon steered her towards the door with one arm and Caroline was forced to fall into step with him – she was now starting to wish that she hadn’t painted Damon as her saviour – but she swallowed her fear as she walked through the police station, smiling at the officers even while her heart pounded. He was going to kill her.

Damon kept up the nice facade all the way through the station and into the car park. Then his grip on her became harder and he increased his pace, yanking her along until she dared to protest:

“Get off me, Damon, I can make my own way home!”

He stopped and stared at her; she cringed under the force of his glare. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

She tried to wrench free. He grabbed both her wrists hard enough to hurt and then the world blurred and she found herself pinned down in a deserted back street, Damon on top of her. She suppressed a sob; the pain that lanced through her skull and back when he slammed her into the concrete vanished quickly, but the real cause of her distress was still very much present. Vampires like Katherine terrified her, but with Damon there was a whole different level of fear, because she remembered him doing this to her when she was human.

He hissed an inch from her nose. “I’m still waiting for an answer, Caroline.”

“I was trying to help!” she whimpered.

“Telling anything to Liz is not helping.” He had a hand around her throat and he squeezed until the tears filled her eyes. “I have been trying to protect your mom. You set her against Katherine, that is not a fair fight and I will hold you responsible when she gets herself killed, understand me?”

She managed a tiny nod.

“Then think before you do anything this stupid again.”

He released her with a contemptuous sneer, and Caroline got shakily to her feet. They stared at each other. She felt dirty and dishevelled, and most of all miserable.

“She’s my mom,” said Caroline. “I won’t let anything happen to her.”

“Go home,” said Damon.

He disappeared, leaving her to wipe the tears from her eyes. She hated him so much. It was like – he cared, Damon actually cared about her mother and yet it only made him treat her like dirt. And he was so ungrateful; she’d stepped up and done the best she could in the Salvatores’ absence and in a few words, Damon brought her right down again.

She decided to take the slow way home.

*

  
Damon walked into the boarding house to find Stefan and Katherine sharing the couch. She was sitting with her legs tucked up, sipping one of his whisky glasses and looking entirely relaxed. Stefan had a glass too, though he was anything but relaxed; Damon thought he might break it with a grip like that. It was probably a good thing his brother didn’t know what Caroline had done.

He poured his own glass, figuring that they both needed some alcohol. “How was school?”

Katherine gave him a beatific smile. “Great. Mrs Winters gave me an A on my English paper and a cute sophomore was kind enough to provide me with lunch.”

Damon glanced at Stefan. “Get anything out of her?”

“I’m right here,” said Katherine. “And you can get plenty out of me. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to talk.”

He picked up a stake from a nearby shelf and collapsed into a chair, keeping the stake in one hand and his glass in the other. “Then talk.”

“She says she’s going to help us,” said Stefan.

“Yeah, right. That’s why you gave us straight to Elijah. To ‘help’.”

Katherine shrugged, twisting a lock of hair between her fingers. “I made a deal with Elijah. I promised him that I would continue to impersonate Elena and help him to kill Klaus when the time came, and in return he’d grant me my freedom.”

“That sounds real helpful so far,” said Damon.

“There’s more,” said Stefan.

Oh, good. He couldn’t wait. He rolled his eyes, but allowed Katherine to continue.

“As long as Elijah believes I’m working for him, I can get close to him. Think about it. I’m stronger and faster than both of you. I know Elijah. I know how he operates, how he thinks. You want to kill him? Then I’ll help you.”

“And how do we know that you won’t just double cross us again?” Damon asked.

“I betrayed you because there was no alternative. Find a way to kill Elijah and I’m on your side. As long as he’s around, we’re all living on borrowed time, you know that, right? It doesn’t matter how many deals you make, how many moonstones and trinkets you hide away. Once he’s done with you, you’re dead.”

It was perhaps the first thing she’d said that he believed. Katherine was opportunistic; she seized every chance to help herself. If she could use them to kill Elijah, she would – exactly as she had done when she was stuck in the tomb. On the other hand, if she thought her chances of survival were better sticking with Elijah, she’d do that too. Hence her most recent betrayal.

Damon thought he had the measure of her now. He also had a card to play that she didn’t know about: Liz. As idiotic as Caroline had been telling her mother about Katherine, he had to play smart and use every advantage presented to him. He had to take control of the situation.

“So we’re agreed,” said Stefan, leaning forward, and Damon snapped his attention back to the pair of them again. “From now on, we work together.”

Damon’s eyes met his brother’s and he knew that was a lie. They’d tell Katherine as little as they could – and if she fell asleep? He’d kill her. But he put the stake aside, for now, and nodded.

Katherine raised her glass. “Here’s to teamwork. Oh, by the way, Stefan? I think you forgot to mention what I said about Ric.”

Damon was out of his seat and then out of the house almost before Stefan had begun to explain.


	10. Family Ties

Damon didn’t knock so much as bang on the door with nearly enough force to destroy it.

“Ric?” he called. “Ric, I swear to God I’ll break down this door if you don’t open it right now.”

He paused, straining his ears for the faintest sound of movement. For a moment, the apartment was horribly silent and Damon feared the worst – then he heard heavy footsteps, the rustling of clothes, and a few seconds later a bleary-eyed Alaric opened the door. It looked like he’d slept in his clothes.

Alaric blinked at him. “Didn’t expect to see you alive.”

Damon swallowed his relief. “Likewise, Ric.”

“Yeah, well, your psychotic ex-girlfriend killed me. What are you gonna do about it?”

“Kill her,” said Damon automatically. He leaned forward as far as he could, examining Alaric’s apartment with interest. He’d never seen it before. “Nice place.”

“I’m not inviting you in.”

“Fair enough.”

Ric cleared his throat. “So, uh, shall I start with the ‘how am I still alive’ explanation, or would you like to do the honours?”

*

  
With Damon gone, Katherine found herself alone in the house with Stefan again. He’d already explained how they had escaped, though he refused to tell her where the moonstone and the ring were. She put her glass aside and cleared her throat, all business.

“So, what’s the plan?”

Stefan shrugged. “Why don’t you drop the act, Katherine? What are you really up to?”

She rolled her eyes. “For the last time, I’m here to help.” Standing up in one fluid movement, she walked over to the fireplace, running her fingers over the mantelpiece. Then she turned to Stefan. “Okay, let’s do the math here. There are two Originals and one dagger, which is currently not in your possession. So you have exactly zero ways of killing either Elijah or Klaus.”

“So we get the dagger back.”

“How? Even if you get rid of one Original, the other is still free to kill you.”

He leaned forward, brows knitted together in suspicion. “What are you saying, Katherine, we should make a deal with Elijah too?”

“You have the moonstone. Elijah might be willing to make a trade.”

“You also said that once he’s done with us, he’ll kill us,” Stefan pointed out.  
“And until you figure out a way to kill him, you need to buy yourself some time. That’s what I did. I can contact Elijah for you. Let me arrange a meeting.”

“Elijah put you up to this, didn’t he?”

She shrugged. “Believe what you want, Stefan. I’ve made my offer. You know where I am if you want to take it.”

She walked out and Stefan didn’t follow. It was apparent that neither of them had a plan. Every move they had made since Elena was kidnapped had been both foolish and desperate, and Damon had escaped Elijah’s clutches only by a lucky chance. But they could complicate the situation with Jenna, and she also needed to get back to the Gilbert house to make sure that Alaric hadn’t done anything to complicate it either. If he had any sense, he’d take being killed as a hint, even if John hadn’t had the guts to finish the job properly.

In a matter of minutes, she was outside the Gilbert house and she paused on the porch to check her phone. She’d felt it buzz silently while she was talking with Stefan, but she certainly wouldn’t check it with the Salvatores present. Katherine bit her lip. She had two messages.

The first was from Elijah. It said: _Call me. Now._

The second made her catch her breath. _I’m in town_ , it said. _Meet me in the usual place. I._

Her mind was racing. So many shifting alliances to negotiate. Making a decision, Katherine stepped inside the house, going straight to the kitchen where she could hear Jenna, and found her working on a paper of some sort at the table. Her thesis, Katherine supposed, though she couldn’t care less.

Jenna looked up. “Ele – I mean, Katherine. Hi.” She shook her head. “Sorry, it’s gonna take me a while to get used to that. And vampires. Everything.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Katherine. “We have bigger things to worry about.” She slid into the chair opposite Jenna. “Isobel’s here.”

Jenna’s eyes went wide. “She’s – she’s back?”

“It’s okay, Jenna. She’s a friend of mine. And whatever Ric said, Elena is her daughter and she does care about her. She might be able to help us get her back.”

“God, I hope so. I...” Jenna looked down at her paper and shook her head. “I’ve crossed out the same sentence three times now. I can’t concentrate. Knowing that Elena was kidnapped... I feel like it’s my fault. I was the one who invited Elijah in. I _liked_ him. God, I was even flirting with him and all the time he was talking to me, he had Elena...”

“We’ll get her back,” said Katherine. “I don’t want to see Elijah get what he wants any more than you do. I need to go fetch Isobel, okay? Can you tell John?”

Jenna nodded. “Okay. Although I’d rather not involve him...”

“John has a habit of involving himself.”

“Ha! Yes, he does.” She paused for a moment and then bit her lip, voice turning shaky. “Is she... Is Elena safe, with Elijah?”

“He needs her alive,” Katherine reassured her.

“I know, but...”

“He probably compelled her,” said Katherine. “A vampire can change a person’s feelings. Whatever he does to her, he’ll compel her to be okay with it. It’s not nice, but at least that way it doesn’t hurt.”

Jenna swallowed. She seemed lost for words, her expression full of revulsion. Finally, she managed: “Somehow that’s not comforting.”

“I’m sorry.” She reached over to squeeze Jenna’s hand, then stood up. “I really have to go. I won’t be long, promise.”

Jenna nodded. Katherine left her to muse over the possibilities of just what Elijah might compel Elena to be okay with and headed for the door, knowing that John was lurking in the hallway waiting for her. He had his arms folded and his judgemental face on. Katherine rolled her eyes. She was sincerely looking forward to killing him.

“You know that Stefan and Damon are still alive, right?” he said in a low voice.

“As a matter of fact, I do. What about Alaric? Has he been here?”

He frowned. “No.”

She started walking past him. “Tell me if he shows his face.”

“They were asking Jenna questions today,” said John, which caught her attention.

She turned back. “Questions?”

“About your whereabouts. It won’t be long before they figure out you’re manipulating Jenna, if they haven’t already.”

“I’m living here. They’d expect nothing less.” She shrugged, opening the door.

“Where are you going?”

Katherine smirked. “I have a date.”

*

  
Caroline heard her mom’s car pull up in the driveway sooner than she had expected. Liz worked long hours – far more than she actually needed to, and this fact had been a source of both relief and frustration for Caroline. Her mom neglected her. Tonight though, she suspected that wouldn’t be the case.

She folded her arms as her mom came in. “You’re home early.”

“Can we talk?”

“About what?”

“You know what. Come on. Sit down.”

Liz looked stressed. This was nothing new, but this time all her mother’s attention was directed at her, and Caroline knew she wasn’t going to get away until Liz had said what she wanted to.

She followed her mother into the living room and took a seat next to her, but reluctantly. “I already told you everything I know.”

“Yes, but I didn’t tell you everything that I know.” Liz sighed. “You understand why I didn’t tell you, right? I wanted to protect you from all this.”

Caroline nodded. “I understand.” Her mother had no idea how much she understood.

“This Katherine, she looks exactly like Elena. As though they’re twins.”

Another nod. Caroline was unsure where her mother was going with this.

“I know that’s confusing,” her mom went on, “but the most important thing you have to remember is that when a person becomes a vampire, they’re no longer that person any more. Whoever they were as a human is dead.”

It was like a sledgehammer to her heart. Caroline blinked furiously, trying to hold back tears. It had been painful enough when her mother had disavowed her the first time, but this...

“Vampires are monsters,” said Liz. “They have no souls. You only saw a glimpse of that with Logan Fell. When he was alive, Logan was part of the council. He helped us. Then a vampire got to him, and...” She shook her head. “Overnight, he became a murderer. We found piles of bodies, all drained dry and left to rot in one of the Fell warehouses. That’s what vampires do. That’s what I’m protecting you from.”

Caroline couldn’t speak. She was shaking. Her mom noticed and leaned over to squeeze her hands, completely misunderstanding her reaction.

“I’m sorry,” said Liz. “I know it’s hard, but I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”

It took all her self-control not to burst into tears. She managed to nod and make some excuse about how tired she was, and to her relief her mom let her go. She made her exit and the moment she was out of her mother’s sight, Caroline sped up to her room where she could collapse onto her bed and sob in peace.

*

  
The sun had set. Katherine liked this time of day, the twilight just after the sun had disappeared behind the horizon, when the air cooled and the world seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. The promise of night lay ahead, and though she was a day walker, the night was a vampire’s natural environment. She still had a lot to do before this night was over.

She stopped in a deserted car park, leaning against a wall as she called Elijah.

He answered, voice smooth and cold. “Katerina.”

She suppressed a shiver and had to remind herself that he wasn’t anywhere near her. Talking like this, she could say whatever she wanted. So naturally she started with an insult.

“Hi, Elijah,” she said breezily. “I hear you got outmatched by the Salvatores again.”

He ignored that. “What have you been doing today, Katerina?”

“Exactly as you told me,” she said, her tone just the tiniest bit affronted. “Spying. Keeping an eye on Elena’s friends and relatives. I assume that includes the Salvatores now? They have the moonstone and they’re already plotting against you.”

“Yes. Can you get the moonstone?”

She gave it a second’s pause. “Sure, I can get it. What about your daylight ring?”

“If you can bring me both, good, but the moonstone is more important.”

“Moonstone duty first. Got it. So why were you looking for this burial site anyway? That’s not part of breaking the curse.”

“You don’t know everything about breaking the curse.”

That took her by surprise, but his answer was too evasive for her to guess what he meant. She did know that places where witches had died held power, and she would bet that it was the magical power that Elijah wanted. Maybe she just hadn’t known about that requirement.

“I see,” she said. “So is there anything else I should know?”

“Just one thing. In the future when speaking to me you will keep a civil tongue, Katerina, or the next time I see you I shall cut it out.”

Katherine couldn’t help it; she looked around, heart beating fast, suddenly afraid that Elijah had tricked her and that he was about to loom out of the darkness. But nothing happened; he had ended the call and she took a deep breath to calm herself before turning to her next task: locating Isobel.

Isobel had not given an exact address, displaying the caution that Katherine had taught her. No giving vital information away in texts or e-mails. But she was a creature of habit – as Damon had taught her – and Katherine knew exactly where to search for Isobel’s usual haunts.

Less than half an hour later, she found the right place. She walked into a property that should have been empty to find the lights on and Isobel’s suitcases stashed in the hall. Isobel had good taste. Katherine looked around, raising an admiring eyebrow at the elegant decor, before a vampire blurred into her, slamming her against the wall.

“You’re late,” Isobel murmured, lips soft at her ears.

Katherine had expected this manner of greeting and turned upon Isobel immediately, switching their places and curling her hand around the younger vampire’s throat. “I’d say the same of you,” she purred back.

Isobel smiled. “It’s good to see you.”

They relaxed at once, and Katherine pulled her into an embrace, glad that at last she had a definite ally. She liked Isobel: she was quick and clever and eager to please. And it was thanks to Isobel that she had escaped from the tomb.

Soon enough they were seated on a beautiful white couch sipping wine glasses filled with blood, and Katherine crossed her legs and listened intently as Isobel explained how she had been searching for Klaus.

“Did you find him?” she asked.

“No, but I did find my way to someone in his trusted circle. A witch. He said that Klaus is willing to make a deal with you.”

She raised an eyebrow. “What kind of a deal?”

“Klaus wants Elijah dead. If we can kill him and bring Elena and the moonstone to Klaus, he’ll grant you your freedom.”

She sat back and took a sip of her wine glass, sighing heavily. “Easier said than done. Elijah’s indestructible and I have no idea where Elena is.”

Isobel smiled. “But I do.”

“You found her?”

“Yes. He’s keeping her under compulsion for now, but that won’t matter when Klaus comes. She can stay where she is. Which just leaves...”

“Elijah,” Katherine breathed. “But since the Salvatores managed to lose the dagger you sent us, he can’t be killed.”

Isobel’s smile widened. From her bag, she drew out a thin blade with a silver handle. “That’s all right. I brought a spare.”

*

  
Night had fallen by the time Elijah returned. Elena came to find him as he walked into the house and slipped a cell phone into his jacket pocket. He looked – not ruffled, exactly, but there was a certain grimness to his movements that didn’t seem best pleased.

She folded her arms. “What took you so long?”

He gave her a wry look. “Damon killed me.”

Elena couldn’t disguise her surprise. Of the many scenarios she had envisaged, few ended with either Damon or Stefan successfully getting away. Isobel had told her that they were safe, but when she tried to imagine it, she couldn’t think how. “What happened?”

“He showed me where the witches were buried, and I had the unfortunate privilege of discovering that this was indeed the right place firsthand – when the witches immobilized me. Damon took advantage of the situation by removing my ring–” he held up his bare hand – “then staking me. When I woke up, I discovered that he had also taken the moonstone.”

She caught her breath. “Without the moonstone...”

“The ritual cannot be performed,” he finished.

“But he did lead you to the burial ground,” said Elena, realizing just what that implied. She stepped forward, imploring him. “That means you have to keep your promise. You said that you wouldn’t hurt them. You gave me your word.”

“And I’ll keep it,” he said. “I can get the moonstone back without killing them. For now, however... Without my ring, I am as confined to this house during the day as you are.”

He’d agreed. She could hardly believe it. Despite what had happened, despite Damon killing him, Elijah had agreed to keep his word. He’d barely even put any significance upon it, as though he took it for granted. Elena found herself smiling; she felt as if a great weight had been lifted from her. But he had also stirred her curiosity. “You’re vulnerable to sunlight?”

“It won’t kill me,” said Elijah. “But it is rather unpleasant. Ah, Mrs Roberts, pour me a glass, would you? It’s been a long day. Thank you.”

Irene had appeared to greet him; she seemed to understand what kind of drink Elijah wanted without him actually saying, and disappeared to get it after asking Elena if she wanted something too. She declined.

Elijah moved into the sitting room and sank down into an armchair, almost as if he were actually weary. Elena followed. He glanced up at her, smiling slightly. He seemed to expect that she had more questions.

“Can you get a new ring?”

“Yes. Jonas will be here tomorrow. I should have one before nightfall.”

“How are you going to get the moonstone?”

“In my own way.”

Elena bit her lip. She was conscious of Isobel’s three day deadline. How could she get him to let her out of the house within three days? Did she even want him to? Elijah had just agreed not to harm her friends; maybe that was the best outcome she was going to get even if Isobel did intend to rescue her. She didn’t know. That was the problem.

A distraction appeared in the form of Irene coming in to pass Elijah a glass of some red liquid. Elena knew at once that it wasn’t wine. He drank, and seemed instantly more at ease. Irene left the room, but Elena didn’t follow; instead, she sat down near Elijah – but not too near – and thought for a moment.

“Why did Klaus kill your family?”

“Fear and spite.”

“Fear of what?”

“That we would turn on him. Hardly surprising, when my father had already done so.” He paused, seeming to consider his words carefully. “When the secret of Klaus’s true bloodline came out, it tore our family apart. My father declared Klaus outcast; my mother sought to protect him and in doing so she provoked his anger. She was the first to die.”

“How? With a dagger?”

Elijah shook his head. “No. With a stake from the one tree that could kill an Original. At the behest of my father, one of my sisters drove it through my mother’s heart... and she never woke up. That was how we learned that we were not truly immortal... My father blamed Klaus for her death. Driven mad with grief and despair, he hunted Klaus down, and Klaus killed him.”

So he had lost both his parents to other family members. She could imagine something of how that had felt: Elena knew grief, and loss, but not betrayal. Not like that. “Permanently?”

“The witches had procured for him a dagger. They saved the ash from the tree which we burned down to ensure that none of us could ever be killed again. Klaus drove the dagger into my father’s heart and hid away his body so that he could not be resurrected.”

“And you forgave him?”

“Yes. I believed that Klaus had been wronged; he could not be blamed for the circumstances of his birth. Those were our earliest years as vampires, Elena. We were all much more... volatile. With our parents dead, we scattered. For a long time, I was Klaus’s closest confidant. I watched him gradually become obsessed with breaking the curse. No matter how many times I reassured him, he became more and more paranoid that our other siblings were plotting against him. He believed not only that he should break the curse because he had a right to his true heritage, but also that it would give him the power to stand against other Originals. Any Original could create an army of followers; we all made and compelled other vampires to do our bidding. But as a hybrid, Klaus could create a species entirely new... and superior to both vampire and werewolf.”

Elena frowned. “But you were going to help him do it.”

“Yes.”

He did look ashamed of that, she thought. Whatever Elijah was, it was clear that he was nowhere near as bad as Klaus. It was strange; far from her first impression of him, so far he seemed to be almost merciful with her.

“And the rest of your family? When did Klaus kill them?”

“He hunted them down over the centuries.”

“What about you?”

He paused, taking a sip from his glass before answering. “Katerina is not the only one running from him.”

“Klaus is after you too,” she realized. “I don’t understand... What changed? What made him want you dead?”

He had finished his drink by now, which he put aside. Something in his face closed off.

“Sorry,” she murmured. “I know it must be hard to talk about. Losing your family...”

“It was a long time ago. I’ve made my peace.”

She shook her head. “No, you haven’t. Or you wouldn’t be so eager to kill Klaus. It’s not just because he wants you dead, is it? It’s because of what he did to them.”

He was silent, but she knew she was right.

“Isn’t there any way to get them back?” Elena asked.

“No. Klaus made sure of that.” He paused, tilting his head slightly as he considered her. “Why are you interested?”

“Because I know that if it was me, I’d want more than anything else in the world to get them back. More than revenge. More than anything.”

“Yes, I’ve seen the lengths that you will go to in order to protect your family. It’s very... human of you.”

He stood up and she watched his every movement, keeping her eyes fixed on his. If he called that human, then she had found his humanity. Because Elijah cared about his family as much as she did, and that was strange also, she thought, that they should have this in common. When he had first taken her, she had wondered if there was any way to appeal to him, if he had any mercy at all. But now she saw that there was compassion in him.

She smiled at him, and he smiled back for a brief moment, his lips curving upwards into something soft and genuine – then he controlled himself again, breaking their eye contact by glancing down.

“If you don’t mind,” he said, “I’ll bid you good night.”

He left, and Elena found herself surprised not so much by his abrupt departure as the moment that had just passed between them. She could only stare after him, wondering if she had simply imagined it.


	11. Drawn In

The moon was a thin crescent in the sky. Already it was waxing; the new moon had passed and the next full moon would soon be approaching. Elijah gazed up at it, calculating how much time they had left. He was alone, high up in the woods around Mystic Falls. The town’s titular waterfall bubbled in the distance and the faint rustlings of small scurrying creatures sounded distinct in his ears. He had come here for some peace, though he would have to return to the house soon. For the first time in many years, he had to time his activities according to the sun.

Well, the loss of his ring was a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things. After rescuing Luka, Jonas and his son had both left town, but they hadn’t gone far. They could return in a day, and they would, but in the meantime he was faced with the prospect of spending the day with Elena.

His thoughts kept returning to her. He hadn’t anticipated when he kidnapped her that he would be the one having difficulty shielding himself from her. Elijah understood people. Over many centuries, he had seen the best and worst of human nature and there was almost nothing that could shock him. He had not tried to get Elena to reach out to him. He had not asked for, nor anticipated, her sympathy. But she had such an incredible amount of compassion despite her situation that he couldn’t help being moved by it.

Here was the mistake he shouldn’t be making. He had already capitulated, already agreed not to harm her loved ones despite the inconvenience that caused him.

The Petrova girls were vicious, manipulative deceivers: that he knew. Had he not fallen for their tricks twice already? Had Elena not done the very same thing when she betrayed him with the dagger? Was she not exactly the same person as Katerina – he did not think of the other, could not – with the same soft voice, sweet smile, doe eyes, with her romantic notions, the gentle nature that belied steely resolve and the way she played with brothers’ hearts?

He remembered his brother’s words, that they might come back to haunt him:

“Love is a vampire’s greatest weakness, Elijah.”

He had lived for too long to believe in something as silly and fleeting as love. Even the love that he had thought could last forever – that of his family – turned out otherwise. Elijah did not brood, as a rule, though it seemed that he could do nothing else this night. Dwelling on the past did no good, and a vampire had so much past to dwell on. The presence of the doppelgänger had brought it all to the front of his mind again: Klaus, the loss of his family, the curse, the doppelgänger, the sacrifice...

He closed his eyes and let it all weigh on him, considering how he might modify his plans, until the moon set and the sky turned pale and Elijah was forced to flee before the coming of the day.

Once inside the farmhouse, he had Mrs Roberts shut all the curtains, making sure that not a single chink of light could get in, and sat down to read a newspaper by lamplight, more for something to do than because he was really interested in the local news. Though given the nature of some of Mystic Falls’ inhabitants, it could be worthwhile keeping an eye on the news in case of strange murders and other such events.

Today there didn’t seem to be anything in the way of suspicious deaths to report, however, and Elijah found his interest waning when Elena appeared in the doorway. He’d heard her moving around the house, but thought it better to leave her to her own devices. She had brought food with her: a bowl of what looked like dried fruit and a glass of water.

“Kind of dark and gloomy in here,” she commented.

“Yes, it is a little stuffy. I’m sure you understand why.”

She nodded. “Sunny day, huh.”

She walked in, placing the dried fruit and water down on the coffee table, and then moved over to the window, shifting back one of the curtains half an inch so that a thin strip of sunlight painted a bright line down the carpet. It didn’t reach Elijah. He stayed where he was, watching her.

He could see the dust motes in the air, and how they shifted as Elena turned, her dark hair spilling over her shoulders. With the sunlight behind her, her figure was sharply defined in contrast to the rest of the room and there was a slightly wistful look on her face, a very human longing for light and warmth.

She was so achingly beautiful.

The look passed quickly; she dropped her hand from the curtain, letting it fall back into shadow again, and walked over to the couch, picking up the bowl as she did so. He watched her curl up, the way she folded her limbs and snuggled right into the corner, the way she balanced the bowl on her knee and absently started picking the fruit off.

“Is that breakfast?” Elijah asked.

“I had breakfast. I felt like eating raisins.”

By now he had discarded the newspaper. “May I?”

She stretched to hold the bowl out to him and he tried one of the raisins.

Elena shook her head. “Why do you bother?” she asked. “You don’t need to eat.”

“Well, food is one of life’s pleasures that I like to partake of occasionally. Mostly for social reasons. It may not sustain us but... old habits, you know.”

“Very old, in your case.”

“Very old,” he agreed. He could see her next question coming before it left her lips.

“Just how old are you?”

He smiled. “Very old.”

She sat up a little, setting her breakfast snack aside to give him her full attention. “Is Klaus the oldest?”

“Not as such. We were turned at the same time, but as a human, I was the elder.”

“If you were human, then how did you become vampires?”

“Through very dark magic,” said Elijah.

Of course, she had come in here to talk and ask questions. Her curiosity seemed never-ending. When he didn’t continue, she leaned forward impatiently. “Will you tell me how?”

“It’s a long story.”

“We have all day,” Elena pointed out.

A small smile escaped him. “True. But I believe I have been talking about myself rather too much. I could ask something of you.”

She blinked. “What would you want to know about me? Compared to you, I’ve barely lived at all.”

She looked so innocent when she said that, every one of her seventeen short years. No... She wasn’t like Katerina. He didn’t think she truly understood just how fascinating she was. But there had been a question nagging at him, and he stood up, moving over to examine the contents of a bookcase.

With his back turned to her, he said, “The night of the dinner party. When you decided to stab me...” He ran his fingers over the spine of a book, a copy of the Bible. Then shifted to look at her again; Elena was regarding him uncertainly. “Did you intend to betray me all along?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t, Elijah. I did what I did because when Damon tried to kill you, I knew you’d kill him for it. I had to.”

“I gave you my word that I would not before you tried to stab me.”

“I know, but... Your plan was to kill me. Is to kill me,” she corrected herself, and she looked down for a moment, expression heavy with acceptance. His throat tightened, a feeling that only intensified when Elena met his eyes again. “Damon and Stefan would never stand for that. They wouldn’t have stopped just because I made a deal. Not if it meant that I wouldn’t survive.”

He hesitated. “Elena... You deduced that I intended to kill you because I made no promise to you about your own welfare, correct?”

Elena nodded. She looked resigned to that, to her own fate. She understood what was going to happen to her, yet she chose not to run. That took courage.

He didn’t know if he could bear to kill her.

Elijah considered his next words carefully. “I made no promise because I couldn’t guarantee your survival, not because your death was certain.”

She opened her mouth, startled, clearly struggling to parse his statement. “What... You mean...” She got to her feet, frowning, looking to him to explain. “Are you saying that I could survive this?”

“I’m saying there are possibilities. You may not like them.”

Elena’s mouth trembled. “What are they?”

He had considered various options and he explained these to her now: the one he knew she would reject, which was taking vampire blood and turning; the elixir he had procured for Katerina, which was untested; and finally the possibility that they did not go through with the sacrifice at all, but simply used Elena as a lure so that a witch could kill Klaus. The problem with this plan was that any witch who channelled enough power to kill Klaus would die in the process, and Elijah had given his word to Jonas and Luka that he would protect them while they worked together. Unsurprisingly, they weren’t keen on sacrificing themselves.

“So whatever happens,” said Elena, “somebody dies.”

“Yes.”

“But if I took this elixir...”

“You would die, then...”

“Come back to life,” she breathed, and her face was the most open he had seen it since she came here: alive with hope.

“It may not work,” he cautioned her. “Katerina fled before I could tell her...”

She looked at him. “You wanted to save her.”

She knew. She understood. “As I discovered, Katerina will always choose to save herself.”

Elena was quiet for a minute or two, thinking, and Elijah turned to browse through the books, though he wasn’t really paying attention. Eventually he gave up pretending to be interested and turned back to find Elena approaching him.

“You always knew that you could save me,” she said. “Was that your intention all along?”

He couldn’t meet her eyes. No, it hadn’t been. It wasn’t supposed to matter. It had been at the back of his mind and he’d kept it there: secondary, as it ought to be, to his primary concern.

“My goal has been and remains to kill Klaus. That has not changed.”

He had allowed himself to be distracted from the goal with Katerina, and that had cost him his brother and then the remainder of his family. It was five hundred years later and he had thought himself beyond caring about a girl he only needed as a tool. The girl who was now looking up at him with soft eyes. He had to make himself clear.

“Make no mistake, Elena,” he said. “Should circumstances change so that you cannot be saved, I will not hesitate to sacrifice you. If your life can be saved, all well and good. But if it comes to one or the other, you know what my choice will be.”

She nodded. “All this time I was with you, I thought I was going to die anyway. I can take that risk.”

“You’re willing to do this?” She had only stopped fighting him before because she didn’t have a choice, he knew that.

Her voice held the ring of conviction. “Yes. I said that I wanted to work with you. Klaus is coming, isn’t he? And that puts my whole family in danger, everyone, because of me. So it’s up to me to do something about it.” She spoke faster, a glint of excitement in her eyes. “And if there’s a chance that I could survive, then Stefan and Damon might agree to help too. You don’t have to keep me prisoner. You don’t have to fight them. We could all help you. Damon could give you the moonstone back, and your ring, and Bonnie could help Jonas and Luka...”

He almost smiled at her optimism. She hadn’t witnessed the events of the past few days; Elijah was certain that Damon for one wouldn’t trust him if he walked up to the younger vampire, handed him a stake and said, “Have at.” It was always the untrustworthy ones who found it impossible to trust anyone themselves, which was why he intended to keep a very close eye on Katerina.

“Are you sure that they would willingly co-operate?”

She paused. “I could talk to them... If I say that they can trust you...”

“Elena, you’ve been trapped in this house for several days without vervain. I could easily have compelled you to believe all this.”

“But you haven’t,” she said. “I know that you haven’t.”

“Unfortunately, they don’t.”

Elena bit her lip. “Elijah...” She lifted her hand, as if she was going to reach out to grasp his arm, but thought better of it. “We can work something out, but first... There’s something I need to tell you. It’s about Isobel.”

*

  
She was coping pretty well with this, Jenna thought, all things considered. She hadn’t even turned to drink. Finding out that her niece had been kidnapped by the seemingly harmless and charming writer who by the way was an ancient evil vampire, and that her ex-boyfriend was lying to her about his not-so-dead vampire wife, and that the girl in her house she thought was Elena was actually her identical vampire ancestor, and that John knew all this but preferred to keep her in the dark like every single person in this town was... Well, it justified a freak-out.

John claimed that the Gilbert family came from a long line of vampire hunters. She supposed that explained all the emphasis on the family legacy, which she hadn’t been privy to. It made her wonder if Miranda had known. Her sister used to tell her stories about vampires. She’d even mentioned vervain, which Katherine had warned her to wear or ingest regularly at all times. Jenna had thought they were just stories.  
And now she was entertaining two vampires in her house.

“So you’re the woman who’s dating my husband,” was the first thing Isobel had said after greeting her, and Jenna knew this conversation was going to be awkward even without the whole vampire thing.

“Was dating,” she’d countered. “Now very happy never to see him again.”

But with Katherine’s reassurance that Isobel was on their side, Jenna invited the vampire in, and they all sat down in the kitchen for morning coffee. John appeared much as Katherine had predicted, and added a whole new level of awkwardness to the table. Jenna glanced at Isobel and cleared her throat, wondering if the other woman knew that they had yet another ex in common.

“So what have you two been up to?” John asked, glancing between Katherine and Isobel.

“We have a plan,” said Katherine. “A way to save Elena.”

With a knowing smile at Isobel, she produced a dagger which she held out for them all to examine. Jenna stared at it. Vampires, as far as she knew, were supposed to be killed by wood. The blade was silver, dull with age but thin and lethally sharp. The elegant handle was inlaid with some kind of design she couldn’t make out. It looked old. Katherine handled it with a kind of reverence, setting it down very carefully on the table.

Jenna looked up at her. “What is that?”

“That dagger,” said Isobel, “is the only thing that can kill an Original.”

Katherine nodded, leaning forward. “The problem is, vampires can’t use it. If Isobel or I stabbed Elijah with the dagger, we’d die. That’s where you come in.”

“Me?” said Jenna, bewildered. Her chest felt tight. She was starting to see where this was going and she didn’t like it.

“You can’t ask her to do this,” said John.

Isobel raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you volunteering?”

He was silent, and Katherine continued. “You know Elijah. The two of you are practically dating. He trusts you and he thinks you’re ignorant – and those two facts give you the element of surprise. All you have to do is get close to him. Then drive the dagger through his heart.”

“Make sure you leave it in,” Isobel cautioned her. “If the dagger is taken out, he’ll come back to life.”

Now she really felt like she couldn’t breathe. Jenna stared at them. Then she buried her head in her hands before looking up again, pushing back her hair. She couldn’t believe what they were asking of her. “Oh my God. You can’t seriously be asking me to do this? I’ve never – I’ve never hurt anyone.”

“Don’t you want to save Elena?” Katherine asked.

“Well, yes, of course, but...” John was watching her with a calculated look. He was actually starting to think that she could do this, Jenna thought in shock. And both Isobel and Katherine were looking at her expectantly. She took a deep breath. “Supposing I said okay. How is this gonna work?”

*

  
For months now, Bonnie had been able to look Damon in the eyes with confidence. She had forgotten how much of that came from her powers. When she had the ability to incapacitate a vampire at a moment’s notice, they treated her with a certain degree of respect. And on the occasions when they didn’t, she could teach them otherwise. Standing before him as a mere human, however... It brought back a nervousness she hadn’t felt in a long while.

“How do you know that this will work?” she asked.

He shrugged. “You’re the witch; you tell me.”

He’d called her into town with the promise of a ‘mini road trip’, which she learned was Damon speak for visiting the site where the witches had died. Now he was leaning against his car trying to persuade her to get into it. She folded her arms, not moving.

“You’re afraid of me,” Damon realized. Her only consolation was that he didn’t look smug about this fact. “Look, Bonnie, you know that I want you to get your powers back. We’re on the same side.”

“So I can find Elena.” It was really the only thing they had in common, she thought.

“Exactly. I’m not looking forward to the inevitable brain frying, but if it helps Elena, it’s worth it.”

She had to smile at that. “Someone has to take you down a peg or two.”

“And you’re always the first to volunteer.” He opened the car door for her. “Come on. It’s not far.”

He was right. If there was a chance she could get her powers back, it was worth taking. She’d felt so helpless these past few days. She had been able to do nothing to rescue Elena, nothing to fight Elijah or Katherine. Even if this trip turned out to be useless too, she had to give it a try.

Ten minutes later, they pulled up outside the abandoned house. Bonnie hesitated as something occurred to her.

“What if Elijah’s in there?”

Damon shook his head. “He should have woken up by now. He wouldn’t hang around.”

“Are you sure?”

He suppressed a sigh. “No, I’m not sure. Everything we do from this point is taking a risk. If you’re that worried, drink some of my blood. That way, if something happens, you know you’ll come back.”

The offer took her by surprise. They looked at each other for a long moment. He seemed sincere enough. It honestly wasn’t something Bonnie had considered.

“I’d come back,” she said. “But as a vampire.”

“That’s what usually happens,” he agreed.

“I don’t want that.”

He shrugged. “Fine. It was only a precaution. Not saying you have to take it.”

She gave him a hard look. He wouldn’t have said anything if he didn’t genuinely think they might be in danger here. Or in general. The only place she felt safe right now was in her own home.

“Okay,” she said. “But only as a precaution. I’d rather not die today.”

“You and me both.”

He was quick: the veins appeared beneath his eyes as he pressed his wrist to his mouth and bit into it. Damon held his wrist out to her, blood dripping from the two punctures. Like: here, drink up. She was never going to get over how weird that was.

Bonnie looked at him in disgust. “I’m not drinking from your arm!”

He rolled his eyes. The wound had already healed up. “All right, fine.”

She watched as he rummaged around in the glove compartment and found an empty plastic cup – clean, she hoped – then dragged his fangs across his wrist again and let the blood drip into it. He waited until the wound had closed up again before passing the cup over to her.

“Let’s not make a habit of this,” she said, and closed her eyes before she could see Damon’s reaction. Trying not to think about what she was drinking, Bonnie downed the cup’s contents in a single gulp and swallowed as quickly as possible. She didn’t know what she had expected vampire blood to taste like, but it turned out to be pretty much as she expected human blood to taste: iron, tangy, unpleasant. She opened her eyes again to find Damon smacking his lips at her. Jerk.

“Don’t make that face, it’s good for you,” said Damon. “Might clear up that giant zit on your face.”

“What?”

“Oh, sorry, that’s your nose.”

She tossed the empty cup at him. “Are you eight years old?”

He grinned. “Okay, my bad. Are we ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” she muttered.

They got out of the car, Damon stretching like a cat in the open sunlight. Elijah couldn’t be out in the sun without his ring. So they were safe enough outside. She sighed, deciding not to worry about it. If he was in there, he was in there. It wasn’t like they could go back and try another time without taking the same risk. Bonnie followed Damon to the entrance, twigs and leaves crackling underfoot. Damon moved almost silently, which was a vampire thing, yet he seemed unusually wary as they approached the door.

He pushed it open for her. “Go ahead.”

Very gentleman-like, she thought, but stepped inside, looking around. Her one fear was that she wouldn’t be able to sense the witches here at all; that she would be entirely disconnected from them. The back of her neck prickled, but maybe that was just apprehension.

Suddenly, the door slammed shut.

Bonnie jumped, her heart racing, and spun around to find that Damon hadn’t even made it inside.

“Damon?” she called.

She heard him bang against the door. “They shut me out! Hey! I’m here to help, Emily. Ungrateful bitch.”

“Yeah, that’s the way to win her over,” Bonnie muttered.

“Shut up, Bonnie.” Of course, he’d heard her through the door. “If I can’t get in, you’ll have to carry on yourself. Is that what you want? Or do you want to ask Emily to let me in here?”

Privately, it pleased Bonnie to know that her ancestor felt the same way about Damon as she did. But she was nervous in this house alone. She hadn’t thought the day would ever come that she would feel safer in a creepy haunted house with Damon than without him, but...

“Emily?” Bonnie called, her voice tremulous. She backed away, wondering if the spirits here could hear her. She had felt nothing, no stirring of power when the door slammed. It had been as much of a shock to her as it must have been for Damon. Would she even be able to reach Emily? “Emily, if you’re there, you can let Damon in. He’s here to help me.”

Bonnie held her breath for two agonizing seconds of silence. Then she heard a creak as the door inched open just a fraction and Damon stepped inside. He looked at her.

“Come on.”

She raised her eyebrows, murmuring, “You’re welcome,” before following Damon into a room full of old books and candles.

“This is where I staked Elijah,” said Damon, skirting around the edge of the room, avoiding the sunlight as though he didn’t have his ring. Bonnie could guess why. She moved right into the centre, beneath one of the ancient chandeliers and had the ridiculous thought that it might fall and kill her, and that would be the lamest way to turn in vampire history.

“I don’t feel anything,” she said.

“You know Emily’s here,” Damon answered. “Try something. Talk to her.”

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, holding out her arms. “Emily?” she whispered. “I – I don’t know if you can help me, but... Someone took my powers. And I need them now, more than ever. Please. If you can help me...”

She felt a little breath of cold air pass across her face and shivered. Little eddies and gusts of wind curled around her shoulders, arms, legs. They hushed and murmured, and Bonnie opened her eyes to see Damon watching her intently, still and silent. The air whispered; she felt sure she could hear voices, hundreds of them, but she couldn’t make out any words...

Bonnie trembled. “Can you hear that?”

He looked around, eyes roving over the stubs of candles, cobwebs, broken furniture. “Nope. Temperature’s dropped a few degrees...”

As if the spirits had heard him, every single candle in the room flickered to life. Bonnie jumped violently. The rushing in her ears was getting louder... It felt like a tidal wave approaching, but she didn’t know what would happen when it crashed into her...

“Was that you?” Damon’s voice was low and urgent. “Did they give you your powers back?”

Bonnie shook her head. “That wasn’t me–” She cried out as blinding pain tore through her head. It was agonizing. Bonnie clamped her hands to her ears, trying to shut out the screaming, the voices, they were so angry; she collapsed slowly to her knees, and she knew that she was crying out too, she couldn’t help it, but she couldn’t hear anything, couldn’t see anything, couldn’t feel anything but the burning pain, red-hot, lancing through her...

She heard Emily’s voice, clearer than all the others, cutting through her head like a knife: “Break.”

Bonnie’s eyes rolled up in her head. The last impression she had was of all the candles blowing out, the sudden darkness that entailed and then a swift black movement as something caught her before her head hit the ground.


	12. Trust

Bonnie was limp in his arms and Damon twisted his mouth as he looked at her. Weren’t these witches supposed to be on her side? Surely they wouldn’t have... “Bonnie. Bonnie.”

He shook her, but gently, and to his utmost relief she stirred, murmuring something. “Emily...”

“Bonnie,” he said again. “Come on. Wake up.”

She took her time with it, stirring again but with her eyes still closed, until finally she frowned, blinking, and her eyes focused on him. He stood up, picking her up with him, and Bonnie automatically clutched at his shoulder to balance herself.

“Damon...”

“Right here. You okay?”

“Yeah... I...”

“Feeling witchier?”

She’d better not answer that by using one of her vampire headache tricks, he thought. He was being exceptionally nice to her right now. But Bonnie only nodded, expression clearing.

“My powers weren’t gone. They were blocked.”

“So are they unblocked?”

She nodded slowly.

“Good.” He pulled her to her feet, brushed away some of the dust from her sleeves since he was such a barrel of favours today, and glanced around, conscious that the dead witches who lurked around here were really not his biggest fans.

“Wait,” said Bonnie. “There’s more.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“They didn’t just give me my powers. They let me channel their powers. And something else too.”

Well, it looked like this little trip had turned out to be more useful than he had anticipated. “What?”

“They gave me the power to kill Klaus.”

*

  
Elena hadn’t realized how tightly coiled her body had been over the last few days. She’d been living on a knife edge, constantly worrying, and with only Elijah to turn to for news. There was still plenty to worry about, as she discovered when she told him about Isobel, but she was no longer helpless. This time, she wasn’t alone. She and Elijah would face their problems together.

“I believe that your mother is working for Klaus,” he told her.

That made her shiver. It meant that Klaus knew where she was.

“Should we leave?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Isobel found us once. No doubt she could do so again. Klaus and his witches will see to that.”

“How can you be sure that he has witches?”

“Klaus always has witches. One of them is a young woman called Greta Martin.”

Elena caught her breath. “Martin... as in...”

He nodded. “Jonas’ daughter. The Martins wish to save her from Klaus. I’ve agreed to reunite them once Klaus is gone.”

So the Martins were fighting for the sake of their family too. Elena bit her lip, remembering how her friends had kidnapped Luka in an attempt to rescue her. The fury on Jonas Martin’s face... Of course, he’d do anything to save his family. Just as she would. Just as Elijah would.

“When Isobel reappears, I’ll be waiting for her,” Elijah went on. “I won’t let her take you to Klaus, Elena. Not until we’re ready.”

“But I need to stay here, as bait.”

He nodded, and Elena leaned back on the couch, sighing. She saw the sense in his plan – the easiest way to get hold of Isobel was to set a trap for her – but she missed her family terribly, and she was bored of this house. With the curtains all shut, dark and enclosed, she felt more stifled than ever.

“You don’t have to be a prisoner,” said Elijah softly. “Here, let me remove your compulsion.”

It was a minute but precise change: he caught her gaze and suddenly every line of his body focused on her, though he had barely moved. It was as though for a moment in his eyes nothing else existed, and she knew how easy it would for those eyes to ensnare her completely, to hold her captive more surely than any walls or chains; but Elena had the vervain. She wasn’t afraid. She wouldn’t have been even without it, she realized, because this could not be more different to his last failed attempt to compel her.

“Wait,” she said.

He blinked.

“There’s something I forgot to tell you. Isobel gave me vervain.”

She leaned down, breaking their eye contact, hair falling over her face as she drew the tiny sprig of vervain from its hiding place: in her sock. The plastic wallet was crumpled, but it had done its job in keeping the vervain preserved. Elena straightened up again, brushing back her hair to find Elijah watching her, amused.

She shrugged. “I thought my pocket was too obvious. Here.” She offered the vervain to him, unable to keep her hand from trembling. “I’m trusting you, Elijah. That you’re telling the truth, that you’ll keep your word. With everything.”

His gaze turned serious again. “You won’t regret it.”

He took the vervain, his fingers cool when they brushed her palm, and leaned forward. Elena shivered. She had just willingly not only placed her life in his hands, but also her free will. That was something she had not even done with Stefan; Stefan had wanted her to wear the necklace so that she could always be sure that the choices she made were her own. With Elijah, she didn’t have that certainty. She only had his word.

His eyes bored into her, and Elena was powerless to resist.

“You are free to leave this house,” Elijah murmured.

She found herself hypnotized, repeating his words. “I can leave this house.”

Then something in her mind shifted, and it was like remembering somebody’s name after her mind had been stubbornly blank: she remembered the compulsion. It flashed through her head, clear as day: in the house with Rose and Trevor, Elijah questioning her about the moonstone. Then just before they left to collect the Gilbert journals, he’d stopped her at the door, placed a hand on her shoulder and forbade her to harm herself. Finally, when they’d returned, he had compelled her to remain inside the house.

That was it. He’d unlocked all her memories, freed her from all previous compulsion. Elena blinked, coming out of her trance as Elijah abruptly stood up.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

He disappeared, leaving Elena confused, but grateful for the brief respite. She needed to gather her thoughts. She stretched, paced around, went over to the window again and pulled the curtain open to look outside. She had to squint to adjust to the light, but it wasn’t the landscape that interested her. It was enough to feel the sun on her face.

She wondered how her mother could have fallen into Klaus’s hands in the first place. Had Isobel cared enough about her to go and try to stop him herself? No, she couldn’t believe that. Isobel didn’t care. She’d come to Elena with empty promises, and the most awful thing was that briefly, Elena had wondered if there might be some truth to them. She should have known there wasn’t. Maybe Isobel wouldn’t even care that she was compelled to betray her own flesh and blood.

Elena sighed, her breath misting against the glass. If Isobel had encountered Stefan or Damon... Or John, more likely. If they were working together... That meant Klaus was manipulating them from afar, and she and Elijah would have to counter that. But how could she convince her friends that Elijah could be trusted?

“Elena.”

She turned to see that Elijah had come back; he walked over, carefully avoiding the strip of light and stopped in front of her.

“I thought you might prefer to wear this.”

She saw a glint of gold; he was holding her necklace. Elena found herself smiling. She hadn’t expected to ever get it back again. “Thank you.”

He held it out to her, then paused. “I’m trusting you.”

He didn’t need to elaborate. Elena understood at once, and nodded firmly. “You won’t regret it.”

She took the necklace and lifted to fasten it around her neck, frowning as she struggled with the clasp. It was so fiddly, and she couldn’t see; her fingers slipped over the clasp several times, but it wouldn’t lock together.

Elijah raised his eyebrows slightly. “May I?”

She pursed her lips and nodded. He took the necklace, moving silently as a shadow behind her. Elena brushed her hair out of the way and felt his fingers ghost over her collarbone as he drew the necklace up around her neck. She suddenly realized that she had exposed her throat to him. He was right there, at her shoulder, the curve of her neck mere inches from his face.

The correct reaction was fear, anxiety, hesitation – something. Elena felt her heart beat faster, but not out of fear. She looked down, touched the pendant at her neck.

“Is it stupid of me to feel safe with you?”

“No.” Elijah fastened the necklace and adjusted it so that its placement was exactly symmetrical, the fastening hidden at the back of her neck. There was something very fastidious about the way he did it, almost like a butler. He stepped back, his tone wry. “I was the foolish one for feeling safe with you.”

When he put it like that, she kind of liked the idea. That a teenage girl and a thin blade of metal could inspire fear in an all-powerful Original. She turned and smiled at him.

“Well, you didn’t know that we had the dagger.”

“You realize that Klaus sent it, don’t you?”

She frowned. “Klaus? But – John gave the dagger to Damon.”

“And where did John get it?”

“From Isobel... Oh. He sent Isobel with the dagger.” That was why Elijah suspected that she was working for Klaus. Elena shook her head as realization dawned. “We were playing into his hands all along.”

“Klaus plans ahead.”

“Does he plan for failure?”

Elijah paused to consider this. “Perhaps I should rephrase. Klaus is an impulsive mind. As soon as he learns that you are in my possession, he will adjust his strategy accordingly.”

She raised an eyebrow at his wording. “Yeah, well, there are a few other things not in your possession. Like the moonstone. Damon won’t give it up easily. I could try and persuade him, but he won’t listen to me if he thinks I’m being compelled by you.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. I’ll do the persuading.”

There was a faint hint of amusement in his voice that told her exactly what sort of persuasion Elijah intended. Refined as Elijah was, he was still a vampire, and violence tended to be their first resort. She’d seen Stefan and Damon do that often enough. But the longer they were at odds, the harder it would be to ever get them to listen. She doubted that they would listen to Elijah at all. And if they thought that she was his puppet...

“I have an idea,” she said. “How about we arrange an escape?”

*

  
“So basically my mom subscribes to the Buffy theory of vampire evil,” Caroline finished. Stefan had become her outlet for her vampire-related crises. She wasn’t sure when that had happened, but he was a damn good listener. “She – she thinks we have no souls. Do we have souls, Stefan?”

They were eating lunch in the school cafeteria, and since there was no such thing as a quiet corner in a school cafeteria, Caroline simply blocked out the noise and the clattering of her fellow students and spoke in as low a voice as she could, so as not to attract attention.

She had come to school despite her fear of Katherine’s presence because she was no safer at home – less safe, she thought, since she would be alone – and because she wanted to look out for Matt. Stefan had come to make sure that they were all okay, since it turned out that Katherine had actually killed someone already, only it was Alaric and he got better. He’d found a distraught Caroline and even though she knew he must be desperately worried about Elena, he still made time to talk to her.  
After her encounter with Damon, Caroline was grateful that Stefan was such a good friend.

He raised his eyebrows. “Well, that depends what you mean by soul.”

“I don’t know. Whatever makes me, me, I guess.”

“You don’t think that you’re you right now?”

She sniffed, managing a smile. “I guess with all that heightened emotion stuff, I’m kind of more me.”

“Terrifying thought, huh?”

“Definitely. I mean... I screw up everything. So now that I’m a vampire, I just screw up everything more. Do you think it was dumb of me to tell my mom about Katherine? It was, wasn’t it?”

“I think you did what you thought best under the circumstances,” said Stefan.

She shook her head. At least he was being diplomatic about it. Caroline appreciated that. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay. I really thought that you wouldn’t make it...” She ran a hand through her hair and heaved a sigh. “What are we gonna do?”

He sighed too. “I don’t know. Katherine wants us to try and make a deal with Elijah...”

“You’re not gonna listen to her, are you?”

“I don’t trust her, but... She defected to Elijah because she didn’t think he could be beaten. You can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. If that’s her thinking... She has a point.”

“Maybe Elijah won’t kill Elena,” said Caroline, trying to think positively. “Maybe he’s going to use the dagger now that he has it, so he only needs Elena to draw Klaus out. He hasn’t killed you yet, has he? And I bet he could have. Maybe he doesn’t want anyone to die.”

Stefan gave her a look. “I’m not sure keeping anyone else alive is high up on his list of priorities, Caroline...”

“Then what are his priorities?”

“All we know is that he wants to kill Klaus.”

“Yeah! Which is exactly what we want to do, right? Maybe we just need to take a step back and think of something that won’t make him want to kill us.”

“So you agree with Katherine.”

She paused, surprised. “Yeah, actually, I do. But do it your own way.”

He considered for a moment before nodding. “It’s worth a try. In the meantime, can you keep an eye on your mom? She might try something with Katherine... I don’t want her getting hurt.”

Of course, Caroline had intended to do that anyway, so she agreed at once. They parted ways, and though she knew that nothing had yet been solved, she felt a little better anyway. Stefan was here. He could make things okay.

*

  
It turned out that Elena was full of good ideas. As she outlined her plan to Elijah, he found himself watching her admiringly. She was not only quick-thinking and determined, she was smart. Her plan was to trick everyone into thinking that she had escaped by herself. She would return to the Salvatore brothers alone, and tell them that Isobel had given her vervain and she had taken the opportunity to escape while Elijah was occupied elsewhere. To make this story more convincing, he preferably ought to be elsewhere in view of one of her friends, so that they could corroborate her story. They could then pretend to negotiate afresh without anyone thinking that she had been compelled.

“Are you comfortable with deceiving your friends?” he asked.

They were having coffee and cake at this point, courtesy of Mrs Roberts, and Elena sipped her coffee, frowning.

“I don’t like lying to them, but I will if I have to. They went behind my back when they tried to kill you. They’ll understand it’s for the best.”

They were interrupted by his phone buzzing. Elena raised her eyebrows at him, but Elijah excused himself with a murmured apology. He retreated into the hallway before answering.

“Katerina,” he said. “I hope you’re about to tell me that you’ve found the moonstone.”

“No,” was the reply, and for a moment he wondered at how she had the exact same voice as Elena, yet the pair of them sounded completely different, “but I have the next best thing. Stefan wants to arrange a meeting with you. Of course, he wants it to be a public place, but you can question him all you like about the moonstone.”

“I see. Well, in that case you can inform him that Carol Lockwood is hosting one of her many social functions at the Lockwood mansion tomorrow. I hope to see him there.”

“Understood.”

She was making a fair effort at being civil. Elijah almost believed that she was sincere. He knew it chafed at her to be given orders. Most vampires were the same, especially the older ones; they were used to being at the top of the pecking order. They learned their lesson when Elijah came along. He smiled to himself.

“While we’re arranging meetings, I’d like to see you there too, Katerina.”

There was a pause. “Is that necessary?”

“Yes, it is.”

She caught the warning hint in his voice and didn’t protest. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I’ll look forward to it.”

He slipped his phone back into his jacket pocket and returned to Elena, who looked up at him curiously.

“Was that Jonas?”

He shook his head. “That was Katerina.”

It took a moment for his words to sink in, he saw; she still wasn’t used to thinking of her vampire ancestor by that name, and of course she hadn’t expected it. But when it did, her mouth fell open. “Katherine? She’s out of the tomb?”

He explained the situation, and Elena looked alternately horrified and annoyed.

“I can’t believe she just waltzed in and took over my life... She’s living in my house, with Jenna and Jeremy and John. And being with Stefan...”

“She won’t hurt them. I told her only to watch.”

Elena looked at him. “You don’t believe that she’s going to keep this deal, do you? You can’t trust Katherine. She only looks out for herself.”

“Oh, I know. In fact, I’m counting on it,” said Elijah. The moment she broke her word, he would kill her, and relish every moment of it.

Elena sighed. “Good. She had Damon and Stefan wrapped around her finger in the past, and...” She paused, her expression flickering. It wasn’t hard to guess why: he’d told her about obtaining the elixir for Katerina. Once upon a time, he’d fallen under her spell too.

“You needn’t worry,” said Elijah lightly. “Katerina has no hold over me.”

Elena nodded, and to his relief he was spared from having to continue this particular train of thought by the arrival of Jonas and Luka. Elijah heard their car pull up and glanced towards the door. Elena saw his reaction, but of course she didn’t know what had alerted him.

“The Martins are here,” he explained, and soon enough both witches were sitting in the living room; Jonas passed him a pre-spelled ring and he slipped it on as Luka threw open the curtains, filling the room with light. Elena had seated herself next to him, closer than usual. She seemed wary of Jonas in particular, and it was not hard to guess the reason for the tension between them: Jonas was not happy with the lengths Elena’s friends had gone to in their attempts to rescue her.

But he had given his word to Elena that he would spare her friends, and the Martins would simply have to accept that.

“We found the burial ground,” said Jonas. “Luka and I already paid a visit.”

That caught Elijah’s attention. “And?”

Luka glanced at his father, who hesitated. “It worked. We channelled the witches’ power. Either one of us could take down Klaus.”

He was omitting something, Elijah could tell. “No incidents? Problems?”

“We had a few difficulties,” Jonas admitted. “You can’t just take the power from a hundred dead witches, you have to ask for it. They were less than happy at the fact that I had blocked another witch’s powers.”

Elena looked confused. “Blocked another witch’s powers?”

He turned his gaze on her, at once intense and disapproving. “I blocked Bonnie’s powers so that she couldn’t find you.”

“What happened?” Elijah asked. If the spirits of the witches had forced Jonas to return Bonnie’s powers, that would present him with an entirely new problem. He hadn’t been concerned with Bonnie previously. Though she had been involved with Luka’s kidnapping, it was the vampires who had done all the dirty work.

“I made it very clear how important this was,” Jonas said. “In the end, it worked. It just took longer than expected.”

“Then you’re ready to proceed,” said Elijah, and both witches nodded. He stood up. “If I need you before the full moon, I’ll call. Until then.”

He held out his hand, a clear dismissal. Jonas shook it, though with a frown, and then Luka. Elena watched in silence as they said their goodbyes. Once they had gone, Elijah regarded her with a faint smile.

“Would you like to get some air?”

She nodded eagerly. Outside, the sun beckoned.

*

  
Naturally, the first thing on Damon’s mind after Bonnie got her powers back was finding Elena. He’d wanted her to do a spell right there and then, but she’d given him a look, saying that she needed to prepare first. A locator spell required some item belonging to the person they wanted to find, or else a willing blood relative like Jeremy.

“I’ll go find him,” she said, and they went their separate ways, which suited Damon fine as he had a little preparing to do of his own. He was running low on vervain. There was some left at the boarding house and he wasn’t about to let it go to waste.

When he reached the boarding house, however, he was surprised to find Andie waiting for him. She smiled and trotted up to embrace him, looking incredibly relieved.

“Damon! I was worried about you.”

Well, he could spare five minutes. He buried his head into her neck, resisting the impulse to bite her right there. “Mmm... Come inside.”

She took his arm, talking about how she’d tried to call him, how she’d even started to wonder if he was missing, and Damon checked that she hadn’t in fact tried to act on her concerns before he pressed her against the wall, compelled her worries away and sank his fangs into her throat.

After everything that had happened recently, he needed that. She was warm, and he could feel the erratic beat of her heart as he drank, savouring the freshness of her blood. Blood bags just didn’t compare. He made a satisfied sound against her throat as she whimpered.

“Damon–”

“Who’s the snack?”

His head shot up at once in the direction of the voice while Andie sagged against him. Damon scowled, showing his teeth. Katherine was watching him pointedly, one hand on her hip, a smirk on her beautiful, hateful face.

“She’s pretty. Can I share?”

He willed his fangs to retract. “No, Katherine, you can’t.”

“Isn’t that Elena?” Andie murmured, though she looked dozy from the blood loss. Damon curled his arm around her protectively.

“Go clean yourself up,” he told her, and she left, dabbing a hand to the wound on her neck.

Only when she had gone did he fold his arms and stare at Katherine. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you. Where were you?”

“None of your business.”

She gave an elegant shrug. “Fine, be that way. Elijah’s going to be at the Historical Society event at the Lockwoods’ tomorrow.”

“Oh, really?”

“Stefan’s going.”

He gave her a hard look. Katherine was playing some game here, and he wasn’t going to give anything away until he found out what it was. If Stefan was going, his brother would tell him. So what was Katherine doing here?

“Your point?”

She twisted a lock of hair – curly, Katherine had evidently gotten bored of Elena’s hairstyle – between her fingers. “I know you’re the one who hid the moonstone. If you want to save your miserable lives, maybe you should go too. Make him an offer.”

“Or maybe you’re just saying that because Elijah wants me there so that he can stab me with a pencil until I squeal.”

She smiled. “Keep trying to figure me out, Damon. We both know I’m always several steps ahead of you.”

He hated how true that was. He stared at her, fists clenched, and the overwhelming urge to wipe the smug look off her face was too strong. In a flash, Damon slammed her against the wall. Katherine laughed, her eyes glinting, and then he was flat on his back and she was straddling him, every wicked curve of her body making him react in ways he knew he would regret.

She pinned down his arms when he tried to shove her off him, leaned right in so that her lips were practically touching his. “You know you can’t beat me,” she whispered.

“Get off me,” he snarled, and she sat up, though her legs were still locked around his hips. She was looking down the hallway; Damon twisted his head and groaned. Of course Andie had chosen this moment to return.

Andie paused, raising her eyebrows. “Am I interrupting something?”

Oddly, she didn’t sound jealous. He felt stupidly annoyed that she didn’t sound jealous.

“No,” said Katherine, sounding completely unconcerned. “I was just telling Damon that I’m looking forward to seeing him at the Lockwoods’ tomorrow.”

“Oh, the Historical Society thing,” said Andie. “I’d say it sounds fun, but... I wouldn’t be covering it if it wasn’t my job. Which tomorrow, it isn’t, thank God.”

“Lucky you,” said Katherine. She stood up in one swift movement, releasing him, but Damon barely had time to lift his head and brace his hands against the carpet floor before Katherine grinned, waved them goodbye, and disappeared. God.

“Are you okay?” Andie asked, coming over to help him up.

He stared at her and swallowed. “You. Shower. Now.”

*

  
Bonnie swept aside the rug in her bedroom to reveal a pentagram drawn in chalk on the floorboards beneath it.

“Do you want me to get the candles?” Jeremy asked. He was staring down at it with his arms folded.

“Yep,” Bonnie replied briskly. She stood up to fetch a bowl of water and placed it in the middle of the pentagram while Jeremy lit the candles arranged around the edge. He did so with none of his usual interest; in fact, he was pointedly not looking at her. Bonnie sighed. “You’re still mad at me.”

“Yeah, I am. Anything else?”

“No...” She bit her lip. “Jeremy, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kept you in the dark. I’m involving you in what’s going on now, right?”

He sat down inside the pentagram and held out his wrist to her. “Yeah, but only because you need my blood. I know how this works by now.”

She couldn’t argue. There was still one thing she hadn’t told him – hadn’t told anyone. Thanks to the spirits of the witches, she had the power to kill Klaus. She knew with absolute certainty that she could take him out. There was just one problem.

Bonnie wasn’t going to survive it.

Jeremy was frowning at her, dark and brooding, and she made herself snap out of it.

“A drop will do,” she said. “Just a pinprick.”

There were three objects around the bowl of water: a bracelet that belonged to Elena, a scrap of notepaper written in Elena’s hand, and a pincushion. She chose a pin and took Jeremy’s hand, holding it over the bowl of water. He looked at her and nodded, giving his silent consent.

Klaus was somewhere in the future. Elena was missing right now, and that was all she needed to think about. Maybe there were some things she and Jeremy would never agree on, but she knew that he would do this to save his sister. She touched the sharp pinpoint to Jeremy’s index finger and pressed until a bright drop of blood formed around it. Jeremy winced, but made no sound.

They both watched the drop of blood slide down Jeremy’s finger and spill into the water. Bonnie let go, satisfied, and curled Elena’s bracelet and the notepaper into each hand instead.

“No map this time?” Jeremy asked, unable to stifle his curiosity.

“Elijah’s still in town,” she replied. “So Elena is probably somewhere nearby. A map isn’t precise enough. I want to see exactly where she is.”

“And you can do that with a bowl of water?”

“It’s not just a bowl of water,” said Bonnie, watching as the ripples faded and the water became still again. “It’s a mirror.”

She bent her head over the water, concentrating, and Jeremy had the sense not to disturb her. For a few seconds, Bonnie saw only her own reflection staring back at her. She tightened her hands around Elena’s belongings, thinking of her friend, willing the mirror to show her where Elena was. The more she stared, the deeper the water seemed to get. The image in the water became unfocused; she felt as though there was something beneath it, if only she could pull it to the surface.

There was something. A dark shape in the foreground... Much too blurred to make anything out. It was like focusing a lens. The image came to the surface and Bonnie felt as though she was looking into another world behind the mirror: the depth and clarity of the image was disturbingly real. Elena was walking along a garden path, accompanied by a strange man in a suit. Bonnie’s stomach dropped. That must be Elijah. She had never actually seen him, but he fit Stefan’s description.

The sun was beginning to set behind them. Apart from that, the image was far too close for Bonnie to get any real sense of their location. Elena’s demeanour was strange; she looked comfortable, almost relaxed, and she even looked up and smiled at her captor when he said something that seemed to amuse her. Elijah had compelled her then. But at least she was alive and unharmed.

“Do you see anything?” Jeremy asked, almost breaking her concentration.

“I see her,” Bonnie whispered, frowning, “but I can’t tell where she is... Wait.”

She tried again, now that she had a fix on Elena, willing the mirror to show her where Elena was in relation to herself. This was much harder to control; usually, Bonnie got only flashes, fleeting glimpses of images, but that was what the water was for. Using the element as a tool, she should be able to direct it as she wanted.

A rush of images followed: Elena and Elijah in the garden, sweeping back to reveal an old but well-kept house, then fields, trees; she recognized the countryside around Mystic Falls. An empty road; a sign saying ‘Welcome to Mystic Falls’; a garage; a stray cat nosing around a car park; and finally a cross section of streets, including her own. The images flashed back again in reverse order and she understood the directions.

Finally, Bonnie sighed and looked up to find Jeremy watching her anxiously.

She smiled. “I found her.”


	13. Dressed for the Occasion

“Are you sure meeting here is safe?” Alaric asked when Damon opened the door for him.

“Perfectly safe.” Damon gestured him inside. “Glad you could make it, Ric.”

Alaric did not seem convinced by the pleasantries, unsurprisingly. He simply grunted and followed Damon into the parlour, where everyone else was already waiting. The last time they had all gathered in the boarding house like this, it had been to kill Katherine. This time, they had far worse to handle.

Bonnie was sitting on the couch with a laptop, showing Stefan and Jeremy where Elena was. He’d already seen it; he had the directions memorized and the image of the house burned into his mind. Caroline hovered behind them, but looked distracted; she was probably still worrying about her mom.

Alaric glanced at Damon as he moved forward to look around at them all. “So we know where Elena is,” he said. “And we know where Elijah is going to be, which means we have a window of opportunity to rescue her today.”

Alaric raised his eyebrows. “Where’s Elijah going to be?”

Stefan straightened up to answer. “At the Lockwoods’. Katherine invited me over there to meet him, to see if we can negotiate a truce.”

“Which Stefan has already agreed to go to,” Damon added.

Stefan nodded wearily. He didn’t look too happy about it – of course, he would much rather rush over to rescue Elena, but things hadn’t quite worked out that way.

“So here’s what we’re going to do,” Damon went on. “Stefan is going to take Katherine to the Lockwoods’ and do that whole negotiating peace thing.”

“My mom’s going to be there,” said Caroline. “I’m going as well, to make sure nothing happens.”

“And I am going to rescue Elena,” Damon finished.

At this, Jeremy looked up, eyes bright. “I’m coming with you.”

Damon was not surprised. “No, you’re not.”

“I’m coming, whether you like it or not,” Jeremy argued. “Elena’s trapped in a house. Which means somebody lives there, which means you won’t be able to get in. I’m the only one who can get inside.”

“Great argument,” said Damon, “except you’re not the only one who can get in. That’s why Alaric’s coming with me.”

He looked at Alaric, who nodded, and Damon allowed himself a smile. Jeremy, however, looked furious. He stood up, as though there was anything he could say or do that might intimidate Damon.

“You have no right to leave me out of this.”

Stefan spoke before Damon could respond. “I know how important this is to you,” he said, “but there’s something else we need you to do.”

Of course, the promise of something he was needed for shut the kid up, as Damon and Stefan had predicted it would. It was one of the few things he and his brother agreed on, though he suspected for different reasons. Stefan was concerned with Jeremy’s well-being; Damon just wanted him out of the way.

“Jenna’s been acting strange lately,” Stefan went on. “The last couple of days, she’s been left alone with Katherine in the house and we suspect that Katherine may have gotten her off vervain. We don’t know what John is up to either.”

“So you want me to go home?” Jeremy raised an eyebrow. “That’s it?”

“We want you to find out if your aunt is being compelled, and if so, what for.”

“If Katherine’s using her, we all should be worried,” said Damon darkly.

“She won’t talk to me,” Alaric added. “I can’t get through to her... I’m sorry to ask this of you, Jeremy, but someone has to protect Jenna.”

Jeremy looked troubled, but nodded. “Okay.”

That covered everything. Bonnie had already done her part; she was to stay hidden, because the last thing they needed was for Elijah to discover that she had her powers back. Especially since they now knew that witches were the key to killing Originals: Bonnie had the power to do it, or so she claimed. The only thing she didn’t know was how, which meant they had to wait before they could use Bonnie as a weapon.

At least, that was the way she had told it. She met his eyes and Damon gave her a knowing look. She didn’t trust him, so why should he trust her?

“I’m going to look through Emily’s spell book,” said Bonnie, in answer to his unspoken question. “I’ll tell you as soon as I find anything.”

“Let’s hope you do,” Damon replied.

Alaric sighed. “Are we ready to do this?”

Damon stood up, patting Alaric on the arm on his way out. “No time like the present.”

*

  
Jenna stared at herself in the mirror dubiously.

“Are you sure about this?”

“He may be a vampire, but he’s still a man,” said Katherine firmly. “Believe me, your chest is the perfect distraction.”

“I think I’m distracting myself,” Jenna replied wryly. “This is one hell of a push-up bra.”

She was pushing at the boundaries for what could be considered proper for an event at the Lockwood mansion too. The only sombre thing about the dress was its colour: navy, with a wide black belt that pinched in her waist. It was also deeply cut at both front and back, so to say that she was showing a generous amount of cleavage was... well, generous.

Katherine smiled, removing a final pin from Jenna’s hair so that a few curls fell artfully around her face. She had to admit that the vampire had done a great job with her hair and make-up. Centuries of experience, Jenna could only presume, and she could see that in Katherine herself. She had a poise that was entirely different to Elena.

Katherine slung an arm over Jenna’s shoulders and grinned at their reflections in the mirror. “One of my favourite inventions. Now what about your shoes...”

She hunted around and Jenna let her, biting her lip as she watched her reflection looking anxious. The phrase ‘butterflies in the stomach’ was appropriate for first dates. She wasn’t sure that it was quite appropriate for ‘first date in which human female attempts to kill ancient Original vampire’. She didn’t know if she was up to it. Isobel’s instructions were running through her head: the other vampire had taken her through everything slowly and clearly, but in the end they were still relying on Jenna being quick-witted enough to act her way through a date with Elijah. Assuming he agreed to a date. She’d have to charm him enough to do that first, and given the way he’d brushed her off the last time they had met, she wasn’t sure if he was even interested.

“What if he tries to bite me?” she asked. She felt sick at the thought.

Katherine looked up, two pairs of high heels dangling from her hand. “Then he’ll get a nasty surprise. The vervain in your blood will weaken him, giving you a chance to fight back. What do you think, sexy black? Or sexier silver?”

“Whichever one gives me a better chance of not tripping over and making a complete fool of myself.”

“Black it is.”

She tossed the shoes over to Jenna, who caught them feeling almost numb, and sauntered over to the window.

“Jeremy’s here,” said Katherine. “Are we ready to leave?”

Jenna nodded. She slipped the shoes on and followed Katherine down the stairs, feeling terribly clumsy and heavy in the wake of Katherine’s grace. Katherine’s heels were higher than hers, and she didn’t walk, she _slinked_. She moved in a way that John would altogether have disapproved of if she was Elena, and for a moment Jenna had to wonder how weird it was for him seeing a vampire who was the exact duplicate of his daughter.

It was weird as hell for her.

Jeremy walked in just before they reached the door and stared at them in obvious suspicion.

“Where are you two going?”

“The Lockwoods’,” Jenna answered breezily, conscious that she couldn’t tell Jeremy what they were really doing. “I’m presenting a cheque for your mom’s foundation.”

She picked up her handbag and keys, Katherine already opening the door for her.

“Hey, wait!” Jeremy frowned at them. “You didn’t tell me about this. You’re both going?”

“I didn’t think you’d be interested,” Jenna replied, which was true.

“Believe me, I’d rather not go,” said Katherine. “But you know Mrs Lockwood. She can be very insistent.”

He folded his arms. “Well, if it’s to do with Mom, shouldn’t I be there too? Given that I’m the one who’s actually related to her.”

“Jeremy!” Jenna looked at him reproachfully, while Katherine raised her eyebrows. She couldn’t believe that he’d said that. He’d never shown any sign of resenting the fact that Elena wasn’t his biological sister before. She couldn’t quite make herself spell it out for him though, not when it was Katherine standing there and not Elena.

“If you’re going, I’m going too,” Jeremy said.

Jenna looked at Katherine, who shrugged. “The more the merrier.”

“We’re late,” said Jenna. “And you’re not dressed appropriately, you know.”

“So Mrs Lockwood can scold me. Whatever.”

He wasn’t going to take no for an answer, so Jenna sighed and walked over to the car with both of them in tow. Great. At least she supposed her acting skills would be put to the test now. With both Jeremy and Katherine there, she’d have to remember to call Katherine Elena, and to pretend that everything was normal with Jeremy. And try to keep him out of Elijah’s way, because the thought of him going anywhere near the vampire was enough to strengthen her resolve for what she had to do tonight.

Jenna swallowed. This was going to be the trickiest day of her life.

*

  
Elijah arrived at the Lockwood mansion early, for he didn't want to take any chances. The likelihood of an ambush was slim, but he'd thought the same the last few times he had been killed. Unfortunately, his timing meant that he had to endure the pleasantries of small talk with Carol Lockwood for much longer than he would have liked.

Eventually, he managed to slip away to a quiet corner to watch the guests trickle in. He listened to the conversation around him, and very dull it was too, until the word ‘vampire’ caught his ears. Elijah focused, gaze sweeping over the room for the source of the voice. He was intrigued to discover that the speaker was Sheriff Liz Forbes, and that she was whispering to none other than Carol Lockwood.

“...I know; that’s why I want to make sure.”

“Elena can’t be a... It’s ridiculous. And if that’s true, does that mean anyone else walking around during the day could be one too?”

“We can’t discount the possibility. So do I have your permission?”

There was a pause. “Yes. But not until after the cheque has been presented, do you understand?”

Liz sounded wry. “You got it.”

Interesting, Elijah mused. So somehow the word had gotten out about Katerina being a vampire, though of course the women thought that she was Elena. He considered who the culprit might be. The Salvatore brothers might seem like obvious suspects, but if they were going to get rid of Katerina, they’d do it themselves rather than risking the sheriff discovering that vampires could walk in the day. The same ought to apply to their allies, unless one of them had done it behind their backs. John Gilbert was his next thought, and that seemed likely. He knew that John was a member of this so-called secret council, and he had plenty of reason to want Katerina dead. He was also the type to whisper in others’ ears and let them do the dirty work.

Carol had walked off to greet more guests, but Liz had been joined by someone else. A pretty blonde girl; Elijah had last seen her rushing out of the Forbes house in an attempt to save Stefan. Caroline Forbes, one of Elena’s closest friends, and a newly turned vampire.

“Caroline, what are you doing here?” Liz didn’t look pleased to see her daughter.

Elijah also wanted the answer to that question. He missed Caroline’s reply, however, because he was distracted by Katerina’s arrival. She was imitating Elena, hair straight, but there was a definite swing to her step as she sidled up to him.

“I’m here,” she said, sounding not the least bit thrilled about it. “What do you want me for?”

“The pleasure of your company,” Elijah replied, and she arched an eyebrow at him. She did look stunning, wearing a dress that was somewhat conservative for Katerina, but certainly suited her. The thought crossed his mind that he would have liked to see Elena in that dress. They might be twins as far as looks were concerned, but where Elena was open, warm, _human_ , Katerina wore an indifferent mask that concealed only selfish impulses beneath.

“For how long?” Katerina purred, daring to step a little closer to him.

“For as long as I require,” said Elijah, eyes scanning the room again. Carol Lockwood was beginning to chivvy the guests into their seats, in preparation for whatever speech was about to be made. “Where are the Salvatores?”

“Stefan said he would be here.” Katerina was likewise looking around. “Damon, I’m not so sure.”

“There he is,” said Elijah, spotting Stefan skulk inside at last. “Come. Upstairs.”

He moved before Carol could reach them, leaving it to Katerina to hurry over to Stefan and usher him upstairs with them. In the blink of an eye, all three vampires were gone.

He chose a drawing room on the first floor that seemed suitable for their purposes. Elijah settled into an armchair and looked up at Stefan as he came to stand in front of him, arms folded. Katerina stood off to one side, neither sticking by Stefan nor aligning herself with Elijah. There was a smell of polish and burnished metal in the air. Carol Lockwood kept her house impeccably presented.

“Katerina tells me that you wish to talk,” Elijah prompted him.

“We have the moonstone,” said Stefan. “I know that you need it. You made a deal with Elena once. Make a deal with me.”

“I notice your brother seems to be absent from proceedings,” said Elijah. “Am I to conclude that he doesn’t wish to be part of any deal?”

“No,” said Stefan quickly. “He’s not here because we didn’t want to give you a chance to ambush both of us at the same time. But if you make a deal with me, you make a deal with him. I’m here on behalf of all of us.”

Elijah tapped his fingers against the arm of his chair. “I want the moonstone. Where is it?”

“We’ll give it to you,” said Stefan, “if you promise not to harm us.”

He gave Stefan a few moments to stew before standing up and approaching the younger vampire. To his credit, Stefan met his gaze unwaveringly. “If I promise not to harm you,” said Elijah, his voice soft, “you must agree the same in return. You are not to interfere with my plan to kill Klaus. You will make no further attempt to rescue Elena, and you will not harm any witches under my protection.”

He was watching Stefan’s reaction carefully. There was a slight trembling in his jaw at the mention of Elena.

“Is Elena safe?” Stefan asked.

“Yes.”

Stefan licked his lips. Elijah did not have to be a mind reader to guess what was going through his head: he was trying to guess how far he could push Elijah, how far he could question him. Elijah, of course, gave nothing away, watching him with faint amusement.

“I want her back,” said Stefan hoarsely. “When this is all over, I want to see her again.”

“That can be arranged.”

“I want to know that she doesn’t have to die,” Stefan went on, seeming to find a new fortitude. “That this sacrifice won’t happen.”

Elijah’s tone remained soft, assured, certain. He chose his words carefully. “Elena’s life can be saved. Give me the moonstone, and you’ll have a chance to see her again.”

Katerina stirred at that, and Elijah glanced at her. She had been remarkably quiet so far, but she looked surprised. The idea that the doppelgänger’s life could be saved was as much news to her as it was to Stefan.

Stefan noticed it too. “Is that a lie? How do I know that you’re telling the truth?”

“You’ll have to take my word for it.”

He was silent for a moment. Katerina swallowed and said, “You’d better take it, Stef. He can rip your head off in less than a second.”

Stefan looked down. “I guess I don’t have a choice. If that’s true... If Elena will be okay, then yes. It’s a deal.”

Elijah smiled pleasantly, holding out his hand for Stefan to shake. The younger vampire did so, meeting Elijah’s eyes as he agreed: “A pleasure doing business with you. I expect the moonstone by tomorrow. Deliver it to Carol Lockwood. I’ll take care of the rest.”

Stefan nodded and Elijah turned away, dismissing him. “Katerina. With me.”

This time he held out his arm for Katerina, who took it with a suspicious look at him, and Elijah waited for Stefan to disappear before exiting the room at a more leisurely pace, Katerina in tow.

“I’m supposed to be with Stefan,” Katerina pointed out. “If people see us together, they might get the wrong impression.”

“We’re alone now, are we not?” Elijah said, for the only occupants of the hallway were the portraits of frowning Lockwood ancestors.

“Is it true?” she asked. “About Elena? So you’re going to use the dagger to kill Klaus instead of going through with the sacrifice?”

“Your fishing for information is quite transparent.”

They reached the top of the stairs and Katerina came to a stop, pouting at him. “Well, maybe I’m curious. If I can’t ask questions, then why do you want my company?” Her wicked little mouth curved into a smile. She raised a hand to run her fingers softly down his arm. “Or is that all you want?”

There was no fear in her gaze. She was used to this – highly skilled at it, he knew that, from all the games she had played with the Salvatore brothers. Katerina was no longer the sweet human girl he had found a place in his heart to care for. And he was no longer the vampire who had fallen for her all those centuries ago.

He took her hand, lifting it away, and turned to face her. She shrank back a little, perhaps sensing that she had judged incorrectly.

“I want two things from you today,” he said. “One–” and Katerina let out a sharp cry as he snapped her finger, breaking it cleanly – “keep your hands to yourself. Two: the baby vampire, Caroline. Find out why she’s here.”

He released her and she snatched back her hand at once, nursing her fingers. The broken one healed within seconds, but Katerina was tight-lipped; the memory of the pain would still be fresh in her mind, as he had intended. She nodded once, then blurred downstairs. Elijah waited until an appropriate amount of time had passed, adjusting his tie before joining the gathering below.

*

  
Caroline fidgeted all the way through the presentation. Mrs Lockwood was saying something unbearably dull about a charity foundation that Miranda Gilbert had set up, and then Jenna stood up and accepted a cheque on her behalf, and made some equally dull speech about what a wonderful sister Miranda had been and how much this would have meant to her. All the time she was conscious that Stefan and Katherine were missing. They had gone to negotiate with Elijah. She focused and managed to listen in on their conversation, which sounded civil but also unbearably tense.

Then the applause following Jenna’s speech drowned the last part out. She didn’t know if they had come to an agreement or not. Everyone was getting up, chairs were being scraped out of the way, a trolley of refreshments was rolled in; the world in general seemed to be conspiring to distract her.

Even Jeremy got in on the act. “What are you doing here?”

She jumped. He’d appeared so suddenly, leaning over her, and she had been trying to concentrate... She’d seen him come in with Jenna, but he’d stuck like a limpet to Jenna’s side, to her obvious annoyance, and so Caroline hadn’t had a chance to talk to him.

“What are you doing here?” she countered.

He was wearing an old T-shirt and a leather jacket; Caroline had practically felt Mrs Lockwood’s disapproving looks burning into him. Clearly his appearance hadn’t been planned.

“Watching Jenna,” he replied, glancing back at Jenna who was stepping down off the podium.

“Yeah, well, I’m watching my mom, remember?”

He only frowned at her. It seemed that listening wasn’t his strong point either; they’d been through all this already at the briefing that morning. But then Jenna walked past, smiling at Caroline without slowing down, and Jeremy shook his head.

“I’d better go.”

“Keep your target in sight!” Caroline called after him jokingly. He made a rude gesture at her without turning his back and she shook her head, smiling. Okay. Now to keep her own target in sight. Her mom had headed off already, following the other guests. Caroline hurried after her.

At the exit, she bumped into Stefan. “Hey!” she said, brimming with joy. He was alive! Elijah hadn’t torn his heart out or any of those other Original tricks she’d heard about. That had to be a good sign. “Did you do it?” she asked immediately.

He placed an arm on her shoulder and steered her off to one side, speaking in a low voice. “Yeah. It worked out. Now I have to go find Damon...”

Her eyes widened. By Damon, he meant Elena. She raised her eyebrows and nodded firmly, to show that she understood.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay here?” Stefan asked. “Elijah’s still around, and Katherine...”

“I’ll be fine. I can’t leave my mom.”

“Okay. Call me if there’s a problem.”

He was looking around and it seemed that he was about to go, but Caroline stopped him. “Jeremy’s here.”

He nodded. “I’ll take him with me.”

With that, Stefan left and she breathed a huge sigh of relief. Stefan would take care of Jeremy, make sure he wasn’t in any danger, and in the meantime he trusted her to hold her own watching her mom while Elijah and Katherine were around. She could do this. The guests hadn’t dispersed; it was cheese and cocktails all round and it wasn’t like the other two vampires could do anything in a public place, right? Caroline walked over to where the refreshments were being served and was given something fruity. She spotted her mom again, watching the guests like a hawk. Caroline would have put this down to her mother’s usual on-duty attitude if it weren’t for–

“Katherine,” she gasped.

The vampire accepted a cocktail from the serving girl and grinned at Caroline. “Sloppy,” she said. “Remember, in public, I’m–”

“Elena,” Caroline supplied. After the initial shock of seeing her – and that was never going to stop, she thought – she felt braver. “If Elena was a two-faced manipulative bitch.”

Katherine raised her eyebrows. “Careful. You wouldn’t want this two-faced manipulative bitch to fall out with you.” She pinched Caroline’s cheek playfully. “I suppose Stefan told you about the deal we made with Elijah?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“So what are you doing here? Acting as back-up?”

Katherine’s questions were never innocent. Caroline answered as casually as she could. “You could say that.”

She could feel her mom’s eyes on them from across the room, but she couldn’t look, daren’t look, in case Katherine got suspicious. She turned away from Katherine, looking in another direction entirely, and took a sip of her cocktail.

Instantly, she choked. The liquid burned her throat; she spat it out, gasping; she felt as though she had just drunk sulphuric acid. Tears sizzled from her eyes as she coughed uncontrollably, and she felt strong slender arms holding her up, dragging her away as the glass fell from her shaking hands...

Katherine was leading her away; she thrust her own cocktail into the hand of a bewildered guest, commanding him to take it; and the world was blurred, she felt dizzy, she barely had the presence of mind to look over to her mother–

Had she seen her?

Oh, God.

Katherine dropped her on to something both soft and hard – a couch, they were in a study, glass doors open to the lawns outside. She could feel the sun on her face, but her mouth still felt as though it was burning up, and then Katherine pressed a tissue to her lips, drying them.

“Hold still,” she said.

Caroline whimpered. “Vervain...”

“I know. The drinks were spiked.”

Her lips were blistered but she could feel them healing. Little by little her strength was returning. “I need a drink,” Caroline croaked.

“Wait here.”

Katherine vanished, leaving Caroline to sit up and stare around the empty study. Everything was coming back into focus. All she could think of was her mom. This had her mother written all over it: knowing that Katherine was here, she had arranged for the drinks to be spiked and in doing so had caught out her daughter...

She wondered which would come first: Katherine, or the sheriff’s deputies.

But in only a few seconds, Katherine returned. She had a glass of water, which she pressed to Caroline’s lips. Caroline drank it gratefully.

Katherine was leaning over her, watching as the colour returned to her cheeks. “So,” she said. “Is there something you’d like to tell me, Caroline?”


	14. Not a Rescue

It was funny how no longer being a prisoner could make a place seem so much nicer. Elena spent the morning chatting with Irene and tried to assure the woman that they would not be relying on her hospitality for much longer. She’d make it up to her somehow, Elena thought. After this was over... Elijah might wipe her memory, but that wouldn’t undo what had actually happened.

She was questioning Irene on what kind of flowers she liked, thinking that she could buy some as a gift, when somebody kicked in the door. Elena jumped violently, knocking over her coffee. Irene stared at her, face white, and stood up, but Elena beat her to it.

“Stay here,” she said. “I’ll – I’ll go see what happened.”

“Elena!”

She recognized the voice calling her. It was Damon. At once a rush of emotions swept over her; she felt hot and cold at once; her limbs trembled and for a moment she couldn’t move. Even her mind felt frozen, too overwhelmed by conflicting thoughts and feelings. Damon was here. Of course, he was here to rescue her and only yesterday she would have rejoiced, but today...

Irene clutched her arm with trembling fingers. “He knows you? Who is it?”

“Stay here,” Elena repeated. “I’ll handle it.”

She retreated, leaving Irene staring after her as she hurried across to the hallway, where she almost bumped into Alaric.

“Ric!”

He smiled at her, and she felt tears splinter her eyes at the sheer relief on his face. “Elena! You’re okay. Damon’s outside, c’mon, let’s get you outta here...”

He beckoned her forward, and even started walking until he realized that she wasn’t moving. She stood in the doorway, shifting awkwardly.

“Ric... I can’t leave.”

“What?” He stared at her. “Did he compel you?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m not compelled. It’s complicated, but things have changed. Elijah’s on my side now. He agreed to spare your lives and he knows a way to save mine. We’re working together...”

She trailed off, the conviction in her voice fading. Alaric was staring at her in disbelief, and then she heard Damon call from the entrance.

“She’s compelled, Ric! Get her over here.”

Her jaw clenched. There he was, talking about her like she wasn’t there again. Elena gave Alaric a hard look, then walked down the hallway until she could see Damon at the door, unable to enter. Alaric followed, and she guessed that he was hoping she’d walk out without any trouble, but Elena stopped a good five feet away from Damon and folded her arms.

“I’m not compelled. Look, I’m wearing my necklace.”

He was looking at her with a suppressed kind of longing; for a moment he looked very young. Then his eyes flicked to her necklace and his face became a mask.

“Whatever he did to you can’t be undone,” said Damon. “But we can make sure he doesn’t do it again.”

Alaric touched her shoulder. “We’re here to rescue you, Elena.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want to be rescued. You don’t get it–”

“Ric,” said Damon, nodding his head at him.

Alaric held up his hands. “I can’t...”

“She’s compelled,” said Damon. “Get her over here. Now.”

Elena backed away, still shaking her head. Alaric had turned to her and she could tell that he didn’t want to do this, didn’t want to use force, but with Damon outside thinking that she had been compelled... He took a step forward.

“I’m sorry, Elena.”

“No,” she said, “no! I’m telling the truth, I have to stay just for a little while longer, Elijah and I have a plan–” He made a grab for her and she dodged; and for the next few seconds they played a strange game of cat and mouse where Elena couldn’t bring herself to fight Ric and he was clearly reluctant to get a proper hold of her. “You’re making a mistake!” she cried. “Don’t listen to him, I’m not compelled – I’m staying because Isobel was here!”

She was cut off with a cry as Alaric finally grabbed her arm, hard, and pulled her to him, but at the mention of Isobel he froze.

“Isobel?”

“She was here,” said Elena, breathless. “Two days ago.”

“Ric!” Damon’s voice was fraying with impatience. “Let’s have this conversation outside. Or better still, somewhere else completely.”

Alaric stared at her, still too shocked to move, and Elena wasn’t sure whether he was about to listen to her or not, but unfortunately Irene chose that moment to make the decision for her. She appeared behind them brandishing a frying pan; a warning yell from Damon alerted Alaric and he shifted faster than she expected, shoving Elena into Damon’s arms while she cried out, “Don’t hurt her!”

Damon had her in a far stronger grip than Alaric. She fought him anyway, because she was furious, and terrified for the welfare of the poor woman who owned the house. Alaric escaped beyond the threshold, and Damon immediately blocked the way, still holding her. If Irene took a single step outside...

“Let go of me!”

But his grip only tightened, and he pressed his cheek against hers and hissed at her. “You are being rescued whether you like it or not.”

Elena hated him in that moment. Why couldn’t he ever respect her decisions?

“Let her go!” said Irene, surprising Elena with the strength of her voice.

“Don’t,” Elena managed. “Don’t come outside, he’ll kill you!”

“Trust me,” said Alaric, raising a hand at Irene while she trembled, still holding the frying pan. “You don’t want to step outside, believe me.”

“We’re taking her with us,” said Damon. “Go back inside the house. Forget that this happened.”

Elena caught her breath. She had forgotten that Irene was vulnerable to compulsion. It worked; the moment Damon caught her eyes, she had stopped, and now she was turning back as though nothing had happened. She disappeared into the living room and Elena sagged with relief. Damon took advantage of her more compliant state to drag her to his car and shove her in the back. He climbed in after her, leaving it to Alaric to take the driver’s seat.

Elena refused to look at him as Damon placed a possessive arm around her shoulder. “Don’t think of jumping out,” he said. “We’ve got you, Elena.”

“Is she okay?” Alaric asked, glancing through the rear view mirror. They were setting off already; the car pulled away from the farmhouse and into the countryside surrounding Mystic Falls.

“No, I’m not,” Elena answered pointedly. “And if you want to ask about my welfare again, ask me directly, Ric.”

Alaric at least did her the courtesy of looking uncomfortable.

Damon was unrepentant. “She won’t be okay until I get rid of this bullshit story Elijah fed her.”

Elena looked at him then. “So what are you going to do, compel me? Rip my necklace off and force me to do as you say?” She was blazing with anger; her hands shook. She wanted to hit him.

“You know, you are being very ungrateful given that we just saved your life,” said Damon, reverting back to his usual uncaring drawl. “I’ll forgive you since Elijah messed with your head, but I’ll admit that I’m a little hurt.”

She swallowed back a retort and made her best effort to be reasonable. “I get that you wanted to save me, Damon, but believe me, taking me away right now is not helping. Klaus is coming; he sent Isobel to find me.”

“It’s a right turn here, Ric,” said Damon, completely ignoring everything that she was saying.

Alaric took the right turn, but his eyes also met Elena’s in the mirror again. His brow creased. “Isobel’s working for Klaus?”

“She’s the one who gave John the dagger. She’s in town somewhere. Haven’t you seen her?”

“No, I haven’t,” Alaric muttered.

“Then she’s in hiding,” said Elena. “Which means you’ll probably never find her until she kidnaps me and takes me to Klaus.”

Damon gave a humourless smile. “I won’t let that happen.”

“ _You_ won’t let that happen?” She folded her arms. “What about Stefan? Where is he?”

“Meeting Elijah. With Katherine.”

Of course... Elijah had told her about the meeting at the Lockwood mansion. But he’d seemed to indicate that he would be talking to both Salvatore brothers. Katherine had set up the meeting so that they could negotiate a truce. Elijah wanted the moonstone back, and he was going to promise that he wouldn’t harm them in exchange. It was a promise that he had already made, but Elena was familiar with Elijah’s tricks by now. He wouldn’t offer any more than he had already committed to. She could picture it now: Elijah would simply forget to mention that he had a similar deal with Elena, and his wording would be vague enough that Stefan and Katherine would be none the wiser.

He liked to bend the rules; they simply had to play him at his own game.

But Damon had ruined it, again. She thought quickly. “Please tell me he’s not planning to kill Elijah.”

Even Elijah’s patience would not extend to a third murder attempt, she thought.

Damon sighed. “No, he’s not.”

“Ric?”

“He’s not,” said Alaric. “We couldn’t take him out even if we wanted to. We wanted to get you out. Talking to Elijah is just a distraction.”

“He’ll come for me,” she said.

“We know that,” said Damon. “That’s why we’re taking you somewhere he can’t reach.”

“Where’s that?” Elena looked outside the window. They had reached the town by now and the streets were all familiar, every landmark rich with memories. A street corner where she had almost walked into a lamp, drunk and laughing with Matt. The park where she had played as a child, her favourite swing empty. The Grill, which had been a regular haunt of hers for as long as she had been a teenager.

They passed the school, and it was Alaric who answered. “My apartment. It’s only temporary,” he added, looking embarrassed at the incredulous look on her face. “I’ll move out, stay in a motel for a few days... This doesn’t need to be any more awkward than it already is.”

“Don’t worry about it, Ric,” said Damon cheerfully. “We won’t tell anyone that you’re shacking up with one of your history students.”

It wasn’t the prospect of staying with Alaric that bothered Elena. She was used to him being around when he stayed over with Jenna anyway. But if she understood them properly... “So, basically, what you’re saying is that you rescued me from one house only to trap me in another? I won’t be a prisoner, Damon. I’ve had enough of that already.”

Damon didn’t even look at her. He was watching the road as Alaric slowed down. “You do not get a say in this.”

She felt the anger flare up again. “This isn’t a rescue! This is kidnapping. How many times do I have to tell you – I don’t _want_ this.”

The car stopped outside an apartment block. Elena knew this area, but she’d never actually visited Alaric’s apartment before. While Ric turned off the engine and fumbled for his keys, Damon turned and leaned right over her, invading her personal space. His hand went to her neck, grasping the chain of her necklace though he made sure not to touch the locket part, which she knew would burn him. He hadn’t threatened her like this since Stefan had gotten trapped in the tomb with Katherine, and Elena felt much the same now as she had done then: furious, scared, helpless. Her heart was racing and her breath quickened as Damon stared at her.

“It’d take me less than a second to remove this and compel you to do exactly as I say. Don’t think I won’t do it, Elena. There is _nothing_ I wouldn’t do to keep you safe.”

“There’s one thing you won’t do,” she retorted, and that puzzled him enough to make him pause.

“What’s that?”

“Listen.”

He rolled his eyes, laughed softly, bitterly, and to her relief Alaric chose that moment to open the car door. Elena almost fell out when he did, because she had been leaning right back against it, but Alaric caught her.

“Lay off her, Damon. C’mon.”

She allowed Alaric to help her out of the car and show her up to the apartment with Damon only because she knew she didn’t have a choice. Just when she thought she had regained control of her life, they had taken it away from her. And Damon would never apologize, she knew, because he thought his actions were entirely justified. She wished desperately that Stefan could be here.

She wished that Elijah would come back.

*

  
Jenna was thinking of resorting to texting. That was normal, right? Texting someone she didn’t really know to ask them out on a date. That wouldn’t seem weird or out of the blue at all.

Because it didn’t seem like she was going to get a chance to talk to Elijah. Katherine had gone over to him first and then they’d disappeared somewhere and she had Jeremy following her like a lost puppy. She couldn’t go anywhere near Elijah while Jeremy was in the room. He kept asking her weird questions too, like he suspected something. All in all, she was glad when she could shake him off and go receive the damn cheque for Miranda’s foundation.

He even stuck around with her afterwards, to the point that she asked, “Jeremy, don’t you have somewhere else you could be?”

As his parent, she couldn’t help feeling slightly guilty. But she didn’t do hand holding, and Jeremy had never been one to seek it out. Yet today for some reason he wouldn’t take a hint. That was when she took out her phone and considered texting. Or mission abort. That was more tempting.

Then, almost as if the heavens heard her thoughts, Stefan appeared, steered Jeremy out of the way, and the two of them left. She breathed a sigh of relief. Finally.  
Elijah was talking to an elderly couple across the room. He was directly in her line of sight: target locked, laser-guided missile (i.e. her) primed and ready.

_Right. Okay, Jenna. Be a laser._

Okay, that was a terrible metaphor. But she steadied herself, cocktail in hand, and the moment Elijah finished his conversation with the elderly couple, Jenna found the courage to swoop in. And by ‘swoop in’, she meant ‘totter over, feeling somewhat light-headed’. Actually, she nearly stumbled into him, righting herself at the last moment as Elijah turned and caught her arm, smiling.

“Jenna!” he said. “Close call.”

“Oh, God,” she said. “Sorry, I almost had you then – I mean, I would have been horizontal. This is what drinking before 4pm does to you. What do they put in these things?”

She held up the glass, which was almost empty – evidence of her alcoholic tendencies – feeling absolutely ridiculous and terrified. Afraid that her babbling mouth was going to betray her, Jenna drained the last of the cocktail in one gulp to shut herself up. She needed some Dutch courage for this.

If Elijah thought she was an idiot, he didn’t show it. “No harm done. It’s a pleasure to see you again. You look absolutely ravishing.”

_Haha. Yes._

She managed to take the compliment without seeming like a total fool. “Thank you. I was hoping to see you again.”

He smiled. “I feel that I should apologize for the last time we met. It wasn’t my intention to be abrupt with you.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s fine. You were in a hurry. I know how that feels, deadlines looming and all that.” She bit her lip, decided to go for it. “But if you feel like making it up to me...”

His gaze seemed to sharpen. She would have interpreted that as interest, though since he was a vampire he might have all sorts of other unpleasant things in mind.

“And how might I do that, Miss Sommers?” he asked.

Jenna really hoped that she wasn’t shaking right now. “Well, you could take me home. Continue this conversation over a bottle of wine. Seeing as I’ve already broken the ‘no alcohol before 4pm’ rule.”

He seemed to appreciate the joke; at any rate, he looked amused, and he was now looking at her appraisingly. “What about your family?”

“Jeremy’s gone off with Stefan somewhere and – um, I think Elena’s with Caroline.” Jesus, she’d almost said Katherine then. She gave him what she hoped was a flirtatious smile to make up for it. “They’re teenagers; they like to do their own thing. We’d have the house to ourselves.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Well, since you are almost certainly inebriated, I would be very happy to escort you home. However – would you excuse me for just one moment? There’s one more person I need to speak to. I won’t be long.”

She froze. He’d said yes. Maybe it was the adrenaline making her score so highly in the flirting department today – or the alcohol – or the dress. Probably the dress. Jenna licked her lips and nodded. “Sure! I’ll wait outside, okay?”

He nodded back before walking off and she stood frozen for several more seconds, still stunned. Maybe vampires were just easy. They wouldn’t turn down the opportunity of an easy snack. Oh, God. What if he tried to bite her in the car? She’d have no defence against him then. Or he could turn on her the moment she walked through the door of her house – she’d just told him that they’d be alone. No matter how charming he seemed in public, she couldn’t forget that he was lying to her face all the time, because he had Elena. And now she had to hope that he wanted to sleep with her before any of that vampire stuff, since that was her best chance.

This was so incredibly messed up.

Jenna grabbed another cocktail and finished it off in a single gulp before heading for her car.

*

  
“I don’t know who did it!” Caroline insisted, pathetically transparent.

Katherine gave her a scornful look. She didn’t think that this was Caroline’s or the Salvatores’ doing – even they wouldn’t be stupid enough to poison themselves in public – but she was well aware of the existence of the council, still going strong after all these years. Carol Lockwood was one of them. So was Caroline’s mother. Katherine knew how to keep a low profile. Someone had been leaking information.

“You have no idea why the Lockwoods would spike all their drinks with vervain in broad daylight when as far as they should know there are no vampires in town?”

“Maybe they were trying to protect everyone. Dose the guests up on vervain–”

Katherine cut her off. “Your mother saw you. Whatever she was trying to do, your secret is out.”

Caroline sobbed.

“Which means the council knows that some vampires can walk in the sun. Our security rested in them not knowing that. You haven’t just outed yourself, you’ve endangered all of us. Have the Salvatores told you nothing about what happened in 1864?”

The back of her neck prickled, some sense telling her that they weren’t alone.

Katherine leapt up at once, vampire-fast, to face the intruder, and swallowed when she saw who it was.

“Elijah,” she breathed, dropping her eyes submissively. Caroline let out a whimper.

The Original strolled into the room, pausing to regard the two female vampires: Caroline still on the couch, looking small and frightened, Katherine standing behind her warily. He didn’t look in the least bit confused. Perhaps he’d heard everything.

“Your mother has called off the ambush,” said Elijah, speaking to Caroline. “She’s claiming that her information was incorrect.”

It took Caroline a second or so to reply, and when she did her voice was barely a whisper. “Why would she do that?”

“Shock. She doesn’t know what to do right now.”

“She knows about Caroline,” said Katherine, folding her arms. “What else does she know?”

“She was acting on a tip-off,” Elijah replied. He held out a hand to Caroline, beckoning her. “Come here.”

Caroline was trembling, but Katherine saw her control it, squaring her shoulders as she stood up to face Elijah.

“Do you know what that tip-off was?” Elijah asked softly.

Caroline shook her head.

He lifted her chin with the tip of his finger, and Katherine slinked her way around behind Elijah’s shoulder so that she could properly appreciate the look of terror on Caroline’s face. With the pair of them facing her, she was surprised that Caroline wasn’t practically shrivelling up.

“There are two ways we could go about this,” said Elijah pleasantly. “Katerina and I could kill your mother and anyone associated with the council, and thus nip this little problem in the bud – or, you could be more truthful with me and I won’t remove your head from your shoulders.”

Caroline’s eyes flicked over to Katherine. “I know what the tip-off was,” she whispered. “Please don’t kill my mom. Please...”

“How do you know?”

Her expression became defiant. “Because I was the one who told her.”

“Ah,” Elijah murmured, understanding, but Katherine stirred, confused.

“What did she tell her?”

“I can fix this,” said Caroline quickly. “Let me talk to my mom. I’ll make her forget.”

Her eyes narrowed as Elijah released Caroline and the blonde vampire staggered back, wringing her hands. Katherine advanced on her. “What did you tell her?”

It was Elijah who replied. “She told the sheriff that you are a vampire.”

Katherine twisted her mouth. “You _exposed_ me?”

Right after she’d just dragged Caroline into a private room to save her from the council as well. Now both their secrets were out, and while Katherine could have lived with the sheriff being out for Caroline’s blood, she would not stand for anyone trying to hunt her down. And this was all Caroline’s fault. She had betrayed Katherine one too many times.

Cold fury blazed through her. She raised her hand and slapped Caroline with such force that her neck snapped back and the younger vampire fell, twisting with a cry as her head hit the hard wooden arm of the couch. Katherine was on her at once: she was going to break Caroline’s spine for this, _cripple_ her–

“Katerina.”

Katherine turned back from her prey, hissing at Elijah, fangs out.

“Release her.”

His tone was firm, commanding. Katherine trembled with the effort of not ripping Caroline limb from limb, but controlled herself. She stood up and placed her hand on her hip in one fluid movement. Caroline was whimpering in pain behind her, but she ignored it, acting nonchalant.

“Now what?”

“Find Carol Lockwood,” said Elijah. “Convince her that there has been a mistake. She saw you drinking vervain; therefore, you cannot be a vampire.”

“But she’s on vervain.”

“No, she isn’t.” He sounded so certain that the protest died on her lips. “You can compel her. Which reminds me: have you been compelling Jenna?”

She’d been expecting this question, but at this particular moment, straight after all the revelations about the sheriff, it took her by surprise. Katherine took a breath, recovered quickly. “Alaric Saltzman was trying to warn her about me.” She shrugged. “I took care of it. I don’t like too many people knowing my secret.” She glanced back to give Caroline a pointed look, and that seemed to carry enough weight for Elijah.

He nodded. “I suggest that you two kiss and make up. Let’s keep the backstabbing to a minimum.”

She kept a straight face. He disappeared, and Katherine allowed herself a sigh of relief. She wasn’t sure how suspicious he was. Even if he wasn’t suspicious at all, her plan was fraught with risks. She had a back-up, of course: she and Isobel knew where Elena was, which meant that they could snatch her at any point. If all else failed, she would run. She’d been doing that for five hundred years; it came as naturally to her as drinking blood.

She heard Caroline get up, but Katherine stopped her escape attempt, blurring in front of the glass doors that led outside and blocking Caroline’s way. She laid a hand on Caroline’s arm – not a tight grip, but a firm one. Caroline’s hair was dishevelled and her eyes were puffy, but all her injuries had healed.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Caroline bit her lip. “Aren’t you going to do as he says?”

“I’m not literally going to kiss you, Caroline – unless you’d like that.” Her joke went unappreciated by Caroline, who remained tight-lipped. Katherine sighed and tossed her hair. “Yes, I’m going to do as he says. And you are going to do as I say. If your mother comes after me, she won’t last two seconds. Fix it.”

“I will,” Caroline whispered, and Katherine smiled tightly at her before sauntering back to the party. Somewhere in this mansion, Carol Lockwood was vulnerable to compulsion and that gave her another idea...


	15. The Dagger

Alaric didn’t look particularly pleased about inviting Damon into his apartment – especially so soon after he had made it clear that he didn’t want to. But they needed somewhere safe for Elena to stay and since Elijah had retrieved the Gilbert journals from the lake house, that was no longer an option. Privately, Damon and Stefan had decided that it was about time they signed the Salvatore house over to a human resident again – as soon as they could make arrangements, they’d give it to Elena. Until then, Alaric’s apartment would do.

He was starting to doubt that plan seeing Elena sitting so stubbornly in front of him. Damon paced around while Alaric leaned against the kitchen counter, rubbing his chin.

“So what’s the deal with Isobel? What did he tell you?”

She explained, and then gave her version of events since Elijah had kidnapped her. Alaric made them all coffee, frowning at her story but keeping mostly quiet. It was up to Damon to question her.

“An elixir?” he said. “Really? Did he ever show you this mythical elixir?”

“No, but–”

“No,” said Damon. “Because it doesn’t exist. This stuff about Isobel though...”

Alaric cleared his throat. “Do you think she’s really here?”

He nodded. “Since I doubt that Elijah put that information into Elena’s head, yes. If you want someone to behave, you compel them to behave. You keep it simple. Adding dead-not-dead birth parents is an unnecessary complication.”

Plus, Stefan had called Isobel. He’d gotten John instead, but Elena’s parents kept in touch with each other. He thought it more than likely that Isobel had returned and was plotting with John behind all their backs. Plotting with Katherine too, probably; the little bitch would keep that quiet.

“Or maybe I’m telling the truth,” said Elena, her voice full of suppressed rage. “That’s why it’s so complicated. Do you really think that Elijah would have made all this stuff up when he could have compelled me to sacrifice myself?”

“No, I think he’s preying on your trust. Making it difficult to tell the truth from the lies.” Damon shook his head. “This is going to be virtually impossible to fix.”

For a start, he couldn’t remove Elijah’s compulsion. If he’d told Elena to trust him, if he’d planted that seed, then Elena would trust him no matter how much evidence there was to the contrary. His best bet would be to wipe her memory right from when she had first met Elijah, so that she’d have to learn about him all over again. But if he did that, he’d be wiping out everything that had happened while she was kidnapped, and it was possible that Elena was holding something back, whether willingly or not, that might be important.

It was also possible that Elijah had taken advantage of her. She had no bite marks, at least, although that didn’t necessarily mean anything. He scowled at the thought.

“So while you’re deciding how to mess with my head,” said Elena, “do you even have a plan? Elijah will find me, and he’ll know you’ve betrayed him again. What is this going to achieve?”

Her snippiness was starting to remind him of Katherine. He shrugged. “We have you; the next step is to get rid of Elijah. Bonnie’s working on that.”

“Bonnie?” Elena shook her head. “No, she can’t. It would kill her.”

“Is that what he told you? He wants you to think that he’s invincible, Elena. But there’s always a way.”

“She’d die in the process and then there’d be nothing to stop Klaus from taking me away and killing me. Listen to me, Damon, just once, please. We need Elijah on our side.”

It was pointless to argue with her. He wasn’t going to change her mind. Damon glanced at Alaric, who looked troubled. They were spared from continuing this futile conversation, however, by the arrival of Stefan and Jeremy. Damon heard them first and tensed, his whole body tight and wary, until Stefan knocked at the door and called out at the same time.

“Hey! You in there?”

Elena heard him too. Her face lit up with joy and relief. Damon stepped back and watched as Jeremy rushed in to hug his sister tightly, while Alaric went over to the door to invite Stefan in. Then came the reunions, the ‘are you okay?’s, and Damon controlled himself and said nothing. He gave Elena two minutes to delight in Stefan’s presence before peeling his brother away.

“We need to talk,” said Damon in a low voice.

They left Elena with her brother and slipped outside into the hallway, Damon closing the door behind him. Stefan folded his arms and listened with furrowed brow as Damon explained the situation.

“She’s going to need watching,” Damon finished. “We leave her alone for one second, she’ll run off to get herself killed.”

Stefan sighed. “Twenty four hour bodyguard, huh. Yeah, I can stay with her.”

“Or... We could compel her. Stop her leaving the apartment.”

He didn’t think that Stefan would go for that idea and predictably, his brother shook his head, looking pained. “No. I promised that I would never do that to her.”

“Then let me do it. I’ll take the flack, and afterwards you can play the good boyfriend lamenting about your evil big brother’s controlling ways. Isn’t that how it always is?”

He said it with more bitterness than he had intended, his eyes daring Stefan to contradict him. Damon had never compelled Elena to do something she didn’t want to do, though not for lack of trying. Maybe she wouldn’t forgive him if he did; he didn’t know, but he’d rather that she was alive and hating him than dead because he hadn’t acted.

“You’re not compelling her,” said Stefan firmly, refusing to be drawn on the matter. “It’s bad enough that we have to keep her here against her wishes. Messing with her head crosses a line that should never be crossed by either of us.”

Stefan’s eyes were dark and unfathomable. They stared at each other for a moment, and the silence grew thick. Damon got the implied threat. He glanced down, breaking their eye contact, and shrugged before patting his brother on the shoulder.

“Okay, sure. It was just a suggestion. Enjoy spending all your time with Elena.”

He stepped aside and watched as Stefan moved past him, back to Alaric, Jeremy and Elena. For a moment, his brother glanced at him, silently questioning, but Damon had no intention of going back in there. Stefan disappeared inside, and Damon caught a glimpse of Elena looking towards him – no, towards Stefan. Then the door closed with a quiet click, and Damon leaned back against the wall and sighed. He should be used to the way she looked at his brother by now, but it still made him want to go out and kill people.

It had taken him a century and a half to get over the last one. He didn’t know how he was going to do it this time. Why did he keep trying to rescue women who didn’t want to be saved?

It was a good thing, he decided, as he headed back to his car, that he wasn’t going to babysit Elena. Let Stefan handle that.

Damon had a different agenda. It was time to track down Katherine and Isobel.

*

  
“So how about that wine?”

As pick-up lines went, it wasn’t her best. Then again, Jenna was relieved that she had made it to her house in one piece, so really she ought to be commended in these circumstances. But Elijah graciously accepted her invitation and for the next few minutes they made small talk over their wine glasses and Jenna tried desperately not to let her tongue run away with her.

“You seem a little jittery,” said Elijah, his tone full of soft concern. “Is something wrong?”

His eyes looked very dark, she thought. There was something strange about the way his pupils contracted, even though the light hadn’t changed. She blinked.

“No, no.” She shook her head, uncrossing and crossing her legs the other way round on the couch. “I mean, yeah, but it’s a boring story. My ex-boyfriend turned out to be a lying scumbag. Again.”

“Alaric Saltzman?”

“That’s the one. Said his wife was dead, turns out she’s not and she was in town while we were dating.” He raised his eyebrows and she nodded. “I know, right? But anyway, forget about my pathetic dating history. I have decided to make a fresh start.”

He smiled and raised his glass, echoing her. “To a fresh start.”

She toasted him, then drank the last of her wine and wondered hazily if she was drunk enough to go through with this. Although now that she was thinking about it, being drunk hadn’t been part of the plan. Isobel had never said specifically that she needed to be sober, but if the alcohol slowed down her reaction times...

Her resolve was wavering. If she didn’t act now, she wouldn’t go through with it. She had to remind herself that Elena’s life was at stake. Come the next full moon, Elijah would have her sacrificed, and she’d never see her niece again. She was Elena’s guardian. It was her job to protect her.

Standing up, she smiled at Elijah, though her heart was thumping in her ears. He could probably hear that. Not that there was anything she could do about it.

“You know what’ll help wash this down?” She kept her tone as light as she could. “Food. I am famished.”

She ambled over to the kitchen area and felt Elijah behind her, following, which was unnerving.

“You spoil me, Jenna,” he said, watching her rummage around the drawers for utensils – a chopping board – and then open the fridge. The dagger was already in place; she didn’t have to touch it until she was ready, and her eyes had only flicked to it once. It was hard not to look at it. It was hidden in the knife rack, within easy reach if she stood at the counter. They’d wrapped the handle with cloth to disguise it and even done the same with all the others so that it wouldn’t stand out and look suspicious. All she had to do was grab it, but as soon as he saw the blade, he’d know. She had to be quick.

She was so intent on figuring out her strategy that she’d tuned him out. Startled, she looked up when Elijah touched her arm.

“Need any help?”

She had some tomatoes ready for chopping. Jenna directed him away from her; she wasn’t ready.

“Yeah, I’ve got some French cheese in the fridge, can you get that? I’m told it goes well with the wine, although I’m not a connoisseur or anything...”

While he went over to get it, Jenna plucked the dagger out of the knife rack. She wasn’t sneaky about it; that would only make him suspicious. She laid it down next to the chopping board. She’d chosen a thick wooden one that should just hide the blade from his view as long as he didn’t come over to this side. He passed her the cheese, stopping on her left hand side, to her relief, and Jenna took a breath; he was close enough that she could just pick it up and plunge it into his heart... But then his hand closed over hers resting on the counter and she looked up, distracted.

“Why did you invite me here?” Elijah asked.

“Because I wanted some company,” left her mouth before she could stop herself, and she nearly cringed at how true that was.

But he smiled, leaned forward, and his other hand cupped her face, his gaze slow and steady. She swallowed. The crazy thing was that she would have been totally melting if this had happened only a few days ago. Now she felt... ensnared. She couldn’t blink. His fingers curled around hers and that meant she couldn’t reach the dagger, even though it was only a few inches away...

He bent forward and kissed her. It was brief, light; his lips had barely brushed hers before he withdrew, but it was enough to render her speechless.

“Wow,” she finally managed. She felt stupefied, but she licked her lips, remembering the plan. “So, forget the food then?”

He smirked and Jenna knew that she had to take the initiative; she needed to get her hand free. So she leaned up and kissed him again, more forcefully this time, and pulled her right arm away from him. To her relief, he let it go, settling both hands at her waist instead. All she had to do was feel for the dagger...

Jenna wasn’t really a multi-tasker. It was hard enough doing one thing at once. Especially when the one thing she was doing was making out with a vampire. Her fingers scraped against the counter. She felt the cloth-wrapped hilt, curled her hand around it... Elijah was kissing her back, their mouths fastened together and it really was super hard to concentrate like this–

He closed his eyes.

She shifted her elbow back just a little. Angled the dagger upwards. Aimed it at his heart.

Then Jenna closed her eyes, sent a quick prayer to all the gods that might listen, and stabbed.

She felt his breath catch, a sudden stillness. The blade sank into his flesh like a knife into butter and she knew the moment it pierced his heart because the dagger shuddered in her grasp, mimicking his final heartbeat. Her eyes flew open. Elijah was staring at her; his face was still only an inch from hers and he looked shocked, horrified, but she stared back and watched as his skin turned grey with the pallor of death. She let go of the hilt and he collapsed at her feet, the dagger buried in his chest.

Jenna stood still for a moment, her chest heaving.

She’d done it. She’d just seduced a man and killed him. Wow. She was practically a Bond villainess.

Somewhere outside the region of her senses, there was a slow clap. Jenna blinked. She was stunned. Maybe the drink really was having an effect now. But she turned away from the body to find Isobel approaching her.

The vampire raised her eyebrows, a small smile forming on her lips. “Well done. I have to say, I didn’t think that you could do it. Maybe Ric was right to see something in you.”

She barely had the wits to register that, let alone reply. Jenna cleared her throat, gesturing towards the body. “What do we do with him?”

“Don’t worry,” said Isobel. “Katherine and I will take very good care of him.”

*

  
“You think I’m compelled, don’t you?” Elena said.

She could tell. Stefan might be nicer about it than Damon, but he agreed with his brother. They differed only in method, not opinion, a fact that seemed to be an ever-increasing pattern.

Stefan sighed. “Elena, you know compulsion is a very complicated thing... The person being compelled often doesn’t feel as though they’re being controlled at all.”

They were sitting in Alaric’s apartment, Elena toying with her necklace while Stefan held her close, leaning his head against hers. Jeremy and Alaric had both gone, to give the pair of them some time alone. She didn’t feel like taking advantage of that though, despite the fact that they hadn’t seen each other in days. There were too many unresolved issues.

“The person who isn’t being controlled doesn’t feel like they’re being controlled either,” she pointed out. “So how do you tell the difference?”

“There are ways for a vampire to test another person’s compulsion. But...”

“They involve compelling,” Elena finished.

“Yeah,” said Stefan. “I’m not going to take that necklace from you. The point is that you’re here now, you’re safe, and I’m going to do everything I can to protect you.”

“But I had that with Elijah. You need to believe me, Stefan, please...”

He frowned, sitting back for a moment as though something had occurred to him. “Elena... Elijah didn’t... You don’t have any feelings for him, do you?”

She was appalled. “No! I don’t have any feelings for Elijah, he just... He offered me a way out. He offered all of us a way out.”

She realized what the Salvatores must have feared all the time she was imprisoned with Elijah. She’d feared him the same way herself, but Elijah had turned out to be... different. The idea of having feelings for him was new and strange, and Elena found herself thinking back on the time they had spent together in a different light. No, it wasn’t like that. She wasn’t scared of him anymore, but that was because they had forged a mutual understanding. She wished that she could make Stefan understand too.

“Elijah is our best option, Stefan,” she pressed him, when Stefan was silent. “We had a plan, a way to kill Klaus without anyone dying. Including me.”

“I have an idea,” he said finally, looking at her. “Let’s ask Bonnie about this. Maybe she can do a spell to figure out whether you’ve been compelled.”

Elena blinked. “Bonnie got her powers back?”

He nodded. “Don’t tell Elijah.”

“Well, if you have your way, I won’t be able to tell Elijah anything.”

Stefan looked pained and she immediately felt sorry for sniping at him. Not enough to regret doing it, because Elena was sick of being pushed around and being told what to do by everyone around her, but she could understand why he wanted to keep her away from him. She laid a hand on his arm to silently acknowledge this, and changed the subject.

“I don’t mind staying here for now, as long as I get to have visitors. If you bring Bonnie over, can I see Caroline too?”

That finally brought a smile to his face. He nodded, and bent forward to kiss her. “That can be arranged.”

*

  
He didn’t find Isobel. She found him. Damon walked into the Salvatore boarding house and there she was, leaning against the wall of the entrance hallway.

She smiled. “Just the Salvatore I wanted.”

God, she was cut from Katherine’s cloth. He should have realized that way back, the way she had charmed him, persuaded him with soft words and touches, offered him her body and her blood. She was a Petrova all over and she must have scurried straight off to Katherine after they had parted ways, learned all the tricks of Katherine’s trade.

But Katherine was over five hundred years old. Her confidence was earned. Isobel had been a vampire for barely three years, a fact that Damon would be happy to remind her of.

He raised his eyebrows. “Isobel. Didn’t expect to see you here. Thought I made myself clear the last time we met.”

She made an ‘hmm’ sound under her breath and gazed around at the hallway. “You know, for a permanent residence, you could have better security. Avoid surprise guests.”

What little patience Damon had wore out. He sped over to her, fully intending to teach her a lesson, but Isobel had clearly learned from their previous encounter; she reacted at once, disappearing into the parlour, and Damon had to pause and look around to find her. She tilted her head at him, that same smile still on her lips. This was a pointless game. He was older, faster; she couldn’t evade him for long.

He moved; Isobel didn’t. Then a hand shot out to press against his chest and the force of it sent him stumbling back. Damon’s eyes widened. Katherine had appeared in front of Isobel and she shook her head at him, smiling.

“This is no way to treat a guest, Damon. I’m disappointed.”

He looked at the pair of them, how similar they were, Isobel older only in appearance, Katherine with the beauty of youth and five hundred years of history in her eyes. But both of them were predators like him. Isobel did not look at all motherly when she stood next to Katherine. Suddenly the tables had turned.

He affected a shrug. “You wanted me. Here I am. What do you want?”

Katherine’s expression was smug. “We have a present for you.”

*

  
Waiting was the worst thing. Her mom would have to come home some time, but Caroline had no idea when or what she might have done in the meantime. She’d disappeared from the Lockwood mansion before Caroline could find her, and Caroline didn’t dare go to the police station, not when she’d be surrounded by all her mother’s deputies. She had no idea how many of them knew by now, how many people Liz had told about Katherine. But she’d have to find out.

She heard the click as the door opened. In a moment she was on her feet. If she bottled out now, she wouldn’t be able to say anything. So she took a deep breath and stepped into the hallway.

Liz stopped dead when she saw her, and the look on her face broke Caroline’s heart.

“Mom,” she said, quietly, desperately.

Her mother ducked her head and brushed past her. “I’m busy, Caroline. Long day.”

She wouldn’t even meet her eyes. Appalled, Caroline followed her into the kitchen. “Don’t pretend like you didn’t see what happened! You saw. You know.”

Liz turned around, bracing herself against the counter, and her mouth trembled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do. You went after Katherine... and you caught me instead.” She shook her head. “It was stupid of me to tell you. But maybe part of me thought that I didn’t want to keep secrets, I don’t know. I hate being so scared of you. I hate you being so scared of me.”

Her mother was silent, trembling. Caroline stepped forward, but slowly, trying to reassure her.

“Please don’t hate me,” she whispered. “You know how you said that vampires have no souls? It’s not true. I’m still me. I’m still your little girl.”

“How can you be?” Liz spoke in a whisper too, and she was frightened but Caroline thought she could hear a note of hope there. She was sure that her mother could come to terms with this. She had to.

“I don’t know,” Caroline admitted. “I don’t know what the rulebook is with all this stuff. But I do know that I love you and that I would never hurt you, and that I care about my friends and I want to protect them. That’s why I told you about Katherine.” Her voice broke. “She made me like this, Mom. She killed me.”

And suddenly she was crying and she reached out to her mother and Liz was holding her tightly, and Caroline felt like a little girl then, like she was five years old and something had upset her, because back then her mom was the most wonderful mother in the world; she’d scoop up Caroline in her arms, hug her tight, and make everything better. Caroline hadn’t realized how much she needed that. All her life she’d wanted to be loved. All her life she’d felt like she didn’t measure up.

Liz was whispering something through her tears. Caroline was so racked with sobs that it took a few seconds for her to recognize the words.

“I’m sorry.” She kept saying it, like she was apologizing over and over again for everything. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Caroline clung to her. “It’s okay.”

For the first time, she really thought that between them, it could be. Then something sharp pierced her side and she felt the sting of a vervain dart. Caroline shuddered, a little cry escaping her lips; and her last thought was that no, she didn’t deserve to be loved; she didn’t deserve anything. The vervain burned through her veins. She blacked out.


	16. Things Hidden

Elena woke up in an unfamiliar bed. It took her a moment to remember why it was unfamiliar. This was Alaric’s bed – her history teacher’s bed, and there was a sentence she’d never imagined that she would think. Stefan lay nuzzled against her, and Elena shifted, moving slowly so as not to disturb him. She yawned, pushed back the sheets, climbed out and padded over to the bathroom. A few minutes later she was washed and dressed, but any idea of sneaking out was swiftly crushed.

Stefan was sitting up. He leaned against the headboard, watching her. “Good morning.”

She turned away, running her fingers through her hair in the absence of a hairbrush. “If you say so.”

She heard him sigh. “You’re still mad at me, huh?”

“I know that if I walk over to that door, you’re going to rush over and stop me. So yes, I’m still mad at you.”

She sensed a slight movement and then Stefan was at her shoulder, his hand on her arm. “In that case, I figure the least I can do is make you breakfast in bed.”

She almost smiled. “I’m dressed.”

“Breakfast in the kitchen then. C’mon. What do you want? I’ll cook your favourite.”

He cajoled her until she gave in and then Elena sat down on the couch again while Stefan fried something. Ten minutes later, she was eating the unhealthiest breakfast she’d ever had.

“I feel kind of bad eating Alaric’s food.”

“We’ll pay him back.”

“Look at you, you practically cleaned out his fridge and you don’t even need to eat.” She paused while he gave her a mock-injured look, fork halfway to his mouth. Something occurred to her. “Stefan, have you fed today?”

He shook his head. “I’ll be fine.”

The food turned dry in her mouth. “Fine? No, you won’t, you know you won’t. What have you been drinking while I was gone?”

“I’m not on the human stuff, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he said, a note of irritation creeping into his voice. “I’ll get something later.”

They might have continued arguing, or else changed the subject because the matter of Stefan’s dietary habits wasn’t the foremost thing Elena wanted to talk about, but then Stefan glanced at the door and Elena knew he’d heard something she hadn’t.

“Bonnie,” he confirmed for her, and Elena beamed, her anger forgotten at once.

And then Bonnie was at the door, wearing an almost coy smile as she greeted them; and Elena wasted no time, wrapping her friend in a tight hug. She’d come so close to never seeing any of her friends again. Every moment felt like a gift.

Bonnie was carrying a rucksack, which she held out to Elena. “I brought you some stuff. Toothbrush, hairbrush, a change of clothes.”

“Thank you.”

Stefan was watching them, both hands in his pockets, and he chose that moment to intervene.

“Bonnie, you said you were going to...”

She nodded, unzipping the rucksack to lift out Emily’s grimoire. The bag immediately felt lighter in Elena’s hands, and she glanced between the spell book and Bonnie with raised eyebrows.

“You can cast a spell to remove compulsion?”

Bonnie paused, biting her lip. “Not exactly...”

*

  
Isobel’s car was parked outside the Salvatore house. Katherine was sitting in the back, having an impromptu meeting with her vampire descendant while Isobel’s new man-slave waited stolidly in the front seat. They didn’t need to hide now that the Salvatores knew Isobel was in town, but Katherine didn’t want to have this conversation in the house with Damon snooping around. She much preferred to work with Isobel alone.

“So, let’s tick things off,” said Katherine, holding up her fingers. “Elijah dead, check. If we also hand over everything Klaus needs for the sacrifice, that means we need...”

“The doppelgänger,” said Isobel. “I can get her.”

She nodded. “A vampire – Caroline. I had Tyler Lockwood all lined up for the werewolf side of things but he’s gone walkabout.”

“Oh, really?”

“But I’ve compelled his mother to do everything she can to get him back, and I’ve got his best friend Matt wrapped around my little finger too. He’ll be back.”

“As long as it’s before the full moon. Speaking of... What about the moonstone? Damon still has it, doesn’t he?”

She scowled. “Leave Damon to me.”

Isobel nodded. “I’ll collect Elena. Shall we meet back at the Gilberts’?”

“It’s as good a place as any.”

“Keep Maddox,” Isobel added. “I’ll travel faster alone.”

She leaned forward to compel him, while Katherine turned a curious eye on their driver. He was well-built, strong and stocky, and he had an air of authority about him despite being under Isobel’s control. “Where’d you get him?”

“Chicago. He was on a business trip. He’ll treat you well.”

“I’m sure he will,” said Katherine, smiling. Isobel wished her goodbye, and Katherine squeezed her shoulder before the other vampire slid out of the car. In a moment she’d vanished, and Katherine leaned forward to appraise her new driver.

“The Gilbert house,” she commanded.

A few minutes later, they pulled up outside the house. At a gesture from Katherine, Maddox followed and they both entered, Katherine looking around for either John or Jenna. She heard them both together in the living room, which was unusual; Jenna made every effort to exit any room that John was in. But it quickly became clear that they were arguing.

“Elijah’s only the start, you know that, right?” said John. “If she can, Katherine will use you to kill Klaus too.”

“You’re the one that doesn’t get it,” Jenna retorted. “I want to be in on this. I want to help. Sure, I can’t put ‘vampire slayer’ on my resume, but...”

“You’ve proven yourself more than capable,” Katherine finished, walking into the room. She smiled as Jenna stood up, relief all over her face.

“God, I feel so pumped,” said Jenna. “That sounds ridiculous, but I can’t believe I actually did it. I’m still in shock.”

“You did good,” said Katherine, enjoying her enthusiasm. “And I took care of Elijah’s body, so now all that’s left is to find Elena. Isobel’s doing that right now.”

“Isobel?” John stood up too. Unlike Jenna, he looked uncertain. His eyes flicked over Katherine’s shoulder to the man standing behind her. “Who’s the muscle?”

“The muscle,” said Katherine, placing a faint hint of disapproval on the word, “can introduce himself.”

She stepped aside for Maddox to shake Jenna’s hand. “I’m a friend of Isobel’s,” he told her easily. Jenna seemed to buy this; John clearly didn’t. He glanced around. “So this is Elena’s house?”

“That’s right,” Jenna agreed. “Um, can we say...?”

“You can talk openly in front of Maddox,” Katherine confirmed. “He knows as much as Isobel, and he won’t say anything.”

Maddox smiled slightly.

“Are you a...?” Jenna asked, and then blushed. “It feels weird to ask. Hey, what species are you?”

He chuckled. “It’s fine. I’m human.”

Jenna nodded. “Right, right. Me too. Hence the whole vampire slaying thing. Would you guys like a coffee or something?”

Maddox nodded. “Coffee would be fine.”

Katherine shrugged, smiling. “Why not?”

Jenna disappeared into the kitchen and Katherine waited for the inevitable complaining from John. She didn’t have to wait long.

He stepped forward, folding his arms. “Now are you going to explain what he’s doing here?”

“John,” said Katherine, almost fondly. “I just like to make sure you disapprove of me in as many ways as possible. Justify your raging vampire hate. I know Isobel does exactly the same and yet...” She moved with sinuous grace towards him, dark eyes gazing into his. “You still love her, don’t you?”

“I loved who she was. Not who she is now.”

“I think we’ve reached a fork in the road, John.” Her voice was soft, gentle even. “You think Isobel’s going to betray me, don’t you? You think that the two of you are working together to save Elena, and the moment I become a threat, you’re going to kill me.”

He said nothing. She was an inch from his face now; she had backed him up against the wall.

“Did you think I didn’t know? This little threesome arrangement we have here is a dangerous game. And don’t think for a second that I’m the one who’s gonna lose.”

“Katherine–”

The protest died on his lips. She had a hand around his throat in a bruising grip and then she watched as his eyes bulged and he choked and thrashed; but Katherine’s grip didn’t falter. The colour left his skin; his eyes rolled up in his head. He lasted two minutes. In the kitchen, the kettle had boiled and Katherine heard Jenna pour the drinks. She didn’t have long.

The moment he was dead, she released him, and turned around even before his body had hit the floor.

Isobel was looking in from the hallway. She took in the sight of John’s corpse, and became very still.

“Isobel?” said Katherine, taken aback for once. She hadn’t expected Isobel to return so soon. “What are you doing here, where’s...”

“She wasn’t there,” said Isobel.

Katherine hissed in surprise. “What do you mean, where is she?”

“I don’t know. She must have escaped. What do we do about Auntie Vanilla?”

Katherine thought fast. “Maddox, get rid of John. A shallow grave, in the woods somewhere, I don’t care. Come back when you’re done. Isobel, kitchen, now.”

Isobel gave John’s body one last lingering look and Katherine couldn’t tell what it meant; but there seemed to be a heaviness over her. Perhaps Isobel had more feelings for John than she let on, but she didn’t protest. Katherine blurred over and steered the other vampire away, cutting off Jenna as she tried to exit the kitchen.

“Whoa, careful!” said Jenna. “Hot coffee here – it’s a balancing act. Hey, Isobel, you’re – where’s Elena?”

“Let’s go back in the kitchen,” said Katherine firmly. “We need to talk. Without John.”

As she expected, Jenna complied immediately even without compulsion. She never needed to be persuaded where getting rid of John was concerned. Isobel took the coffee that had been meant for Maddox, and delivered the bad news.

“I couldn’t find Elena. I tried to track her, but there were no signs of her leaving on foot.”

“Oh my God,” Jenna breathed.

Katherine leaned forward. “Do you think she escaped by herself?”

“No. I think she had help. Someone else knew where she was. Whoever it was got to her first.”

Katherine stared into the murky depths of her coffee, thinking. “It had to have been last night,” she said, “or earlier yesterday, when Elijah was at the Lockwoods’.” She took a sharp breath. “Damon. He wasn’t at the negotiation – and neither was Bonnie.”

“You said the witch couldn’t find her,” said Isobel.

“Witch?” said Jenna, her eyebrows knitted together in bewilderment.

“Bonnie’s one,” said Katherine impatiently, “and supposing she figured it out...”

“I don’t understand.” Jenna was trembling. She looked between the two vampires, at Isobel who rolled her eyes, and Katherine who schooled her expression into one of concern. “Bonnie is Elena’s friend. If she and Damon helped her escape, why haven’t they brought Elena home? Or am I missing something here?”

“No, you’re right,” said Katherine. “They want to keep Elena safe. Which means they don’t think this house is safe. If Klaus came to Mystic Falls, this is the first place he’d look. They’re trying to protect her.”

She said it with a note of disgust. Jenna was shaking her head. “They think they can protect her from all this?”

“Damon and Stefan are vampires,” said Katherine. “Of course they do. And before you ask, I didn’t tell you because I thought it was enough of a shock for you to hear about me and Isobel.”

Jenna’s eyes widened, but she stilled herself. “And Elijah.”

Katherine nodded. “And Elijah.”

“Just how many vampires are in this town?”

She shrugged. “I think that’s all.”

“You forgot Goldilocks,” said Isobel.

“Oh, yes, Caroline. Yeah, Caroline’s a vampire too.”

“Wow,” said Jenna shakily. She took a gulp of her coffee and swallowed. “Are you telling me that Elena’s two best friends are a witch and a vampire, and oh, by the way, so are her boyfriend, her boyfriend’s brother, and her mom?”

“Elena is supernatural,” said Isobel. “It’s no coincidence that she’s surrounded by it. But we’re wasting time. If Damon has her, where would he have put her? It wouldn’t be the Salvatore boarding house. Any vampire can enter.”

“With a friend,” Katherine guessed. “Like Bonnie or Caroline.”

“Well, in that case, I can just call their parents,” said Jenna. “Seriously, this is stupid. Elena can’t be... I can’t believe they would hide her from me.”

“It’s what they’ve been doing all along,” said Katherine. “They think you’re ignorant; that you don’t need to know anything. But you’re right; they couldn’t exactly hide Elena for long when there are parents in the house... Even that dumb sheriff would notice.”

She paused for a second. She hadn’t yet checked whether Liz had been safely compelled or not, but she would. She was very tempted to kill her, but Liz would be a high profile death; it would get the rest of the council on the alert and Katherine didn’t need that right now. No, if Elena was hiding, it had to be with someone who was in the know and on the vampires’ side. Someone Damon trusted.

Just like that, the answer came to her. Katherine smiled.

“How would you like to pay Alaric a visit?”

*

  
Damon stared at the corpse again, a grimace twisting his lips. He’d tried everything. Fire, decapitation, vervain, wood. None of it worked. Katherine had been telling the truth: Elijah was indestructible.

When they’d dumped Elijah’s body in front of him, he hadn’t known what to believe. Katherine had given him a look, raising one perfectly arched eyebrow, and all he could do was ask, “How?”

“Thank Uncle John,” was her reply.

The idea of being in John Gilbert’s debt did not appeal to Damon. The three of them had been plotting, he’d guessed that, but the fact that Katherine of all people wanted Elijah dead was almost enough to make him rethink his strategy. It definitely made him suspicious of Isobel.

The problem was that Isobel was under Katherine’s protection. If it had been Isobel alone, he could easily have torn her throat out. But with Katherine... He was facing two of the most deceitful, backstabbing vampires he had ever known, and he didn’t stand a chance against Katherine’s strength. The key was to outwit them. So Damon needed to think.

Which was why this morning he’d left a message for Alaric. He would have consulted Stefan, but his brother was all tied up with Elena and Alaric would make a good sounding board until Bonnie could fix Elena’s compulsion. In the meantime, he’d have to leave Elijah’s corpse where it was, in the basement of the Salvatore house. They could decide whether to move it later.

His phone buzzed and Damon sped upstairs where he could get a better signal before answering. “Ric,” he said, “hey, buddy, we have a problem–”

“Damon?”

He stopped, did a double take mid step. Not Alaric. The voice was a woman’s. Liz. He hadn’t bothered checking the caller ID before answering, and he cursed himself for his mistake.

“Liz!” he said instead. “I’m sorry, I was expecting a call from someone else.”

“I need your help.”

Her voice was cracked, close to breaking. She sounded like she was holding back tears. A knot of apprehension formed itself in Damon’s stomach.

“What is it? Is it Katherine?”

“No, no – it’s complicated. I don’t know what to do. Can you come over, please?”

He held back a sigh. “Liz, I’m kinda busy right now–”

“Please. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t... It’s Caroline.”

Damon cursed inwardly. He didn’t need this right now. There were so many other things he had to do. Why was he the one who always ended up bailing Caroline out? She was supposed to be doing damage control with her mom, but it looked like he’d have to do the babysitting again.

“All right,” he said. “Do you want me to come over to the station?”

“No, the house.” Liz paused, took a shaky breath. “Thank you.”

“No problem, Liz,” he said, his mind already racing as he ended the call. Caroline might be hurt. Maybe Katherine had done something – he wouldn’t put it past her, she was perfectly capable of carrying out several plans at once, hitting them from all sides. Ever since she’d gotten out of the tomb, he hadn’t been able to contain her at all, despite the fact that Katherine had far less people on her side than he did.

He thought for a moment, then left both Stefan and Alaric a message.

A few minutes later, he knocked on the door of Liz’s house. No response. Damon frowned.

“Liz?”

He walked in. They were there, both mother and daughter, but Damon had to stop and stare at what he found. Liz was looking up at him with tears staining her cheeks. She looked awful, haggard, like she hadn’t slept all night. And cradled in her arms on the couch was an unconscious Caroline, her face white and pinched, blonde curls fallen into waves. An onlooker might have thought that the daughter was sick and the mother stressed by all the worry, but on the coffee table in front of them were several used vervain darts.

Liz had been drugging her daughter.

For once, words failed him.

Liz cleared her throat, though her voice was barely more than a whisper. “Did you know?”

“Liz...”

“I can’t do it,” she went on, the tears clustering at her eyes. “I know I should, but I can’t, Damon... She was saying all these things and she was so... She’s my daughter. She’s my baby. And now she’s...”

Damon moved forward to crouch down and placed a comforting hand on Liz’s arm. “She’s still your daughter. She’s still Caroline. Can you believe that?”

“She’s dead,” Liz whispered, and the grief seemed to wrack her body; she was shaking, rocking Caroline in her arms.

“Liz,” said Damon. He felt helpless for a moment; he was reminded all too uncomfortably of his own father’s prejudice against vampires, his unflinching belief that they were all monsters. From the darkest pits of hell, he had said. One hundred and fifty years was only the beginning of his eternal damnation. Caroline had barely begun hers – but she didn’t believe any of that, she was from a different time. Her mother, on the other hand, had inherited every single belief that the council had passed down back then.

He swallowed. “Listen, I know this isn’t a popular opinion on the council, but not all vampires are bad. I did know about Caroline. And I’ve watched her struggle with this, I’ve watched her adapt, but even though she’s a vampire now, the fact is that you raised her to be a fundamentally good person. That hasn’t changed. Hell, I’d almost say this was an improvement – she’s grown up now. She’s got a bigger perspective of the world.”

Liz was listening while the tears fell silently down her cheeks, drinking in his every word. He was aware that Caroline’s life might depend on what he said right now. So no pressure.

“She said Katherine did this,” Liz croaked. “Is that true?”

He nodded.

Liz dropped her eyes. “Katherine... At the party, I spiked the drinks with vervain. But Caroline was there and she...”

“You caught her instead,” said Damon, realizing. “Does Katherine know?”

Liz shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Caroline was beginning to stir. Her eyes fluttered and Damon leaned forward quickly, looking Liz straight in the eyes. “Okay, how about we sit down and talk, the three of us. You’ll be perfectly safe, I promise. Let’s sit down and work this out and then... see where we can go from there.”

Liz didn’t reply, but she gave a tiny nod and allowed Damon to gently lift Caroline up. She buried her head into his chest and groaned. “My head hurts.”

“I know,” said Damon, stroking her damp hair. “Open your eyes. Look at me. Here.” Her body felt weak and limp in his arms and he was easily able to turn her around to cup her face. Her eyes were struggling to focus on him. “You’re lucky your mother didn’t kill you.”

Her mouth twisted. “Great.”

“No complaining. We are going to sit down and talk this out.” He indicated for Liz to go into the kitchen, which she did, though her eyes were wide, and then Damon lifted Caroline up and carried her after Liz.

“Being a vampire sucks,” Caroline murmured.

“Yeah, I’ve heard that before. Do you have any blood bags hidden around here?”

“My room. Inside a teddy bear... The big one. His name’s Mr Honey.”

“Cute. You sit down and wait here. I’ll be right back.”

He pulled out a chair and helped Caroline sit down, looking up at Liz as he did so. Their eyes met, and Liz nodded. She’d wait for now. Damon left the kitchen and took the stairs two at a time, conscious that he couldn’t use vampire speed. If Liz discovered that he was a vampire too, this entire situation would take a turn for the worse. She’d feel betrayed by him, but maybe she could accept her daughter. They were counting on that.

He found Caroline’s blood bag stash, hidden just like she had said in a teddy bear. Its belly unzipped, and Damon pulled out a couple of blood bags. Shaking his head, he walked back down again, to find Caroline leaning on the table with her head in her hands and Liz sitting straight-backed, hands in her lap, watching Caroline with mingled fear and love in her eyes.

It looked like he’d have to start this conversation. Damon shifted a chair around next to Caroline and gave her one of the blood bags. She took it and sucked down the blood greedily. Liz looked away.

“This is your daughter’s life now,” said Damon. “Like it or not, you need to support her.”

Liz opened her mouth, but she couldn’t speak. Caroline had finished the blood bag; the colour returned to her cheeks and she straightened up in her seat.

“Were you going to kill me?” she whispered.

Liz shrugged helplessly, her face a mask of tears. “It’s what I do. I... I was supposed to protect you from all this...”

Caroline shook her head. “It wasn’t your fault. Katherine had the perfect disguise.”

“I don’t understand... I thought that you couldn’t be... How can you walk in the sun?”

They were getting into dangerous territory here and Damon gave Caroline a warning glance.

“I don’t know. Maybe some vampires just can.”

It was a feeble explanation, but anything was better than telling the truth.

“This changes everything.” Liz looked at Damon. “You know that, right?”

He nodded. “I know.”

“You can’t tell anyone,” said Caroline urgently. “Please, Mom. If the council knew, if they found out about me...”

“Is it true what you said?” Liz asked. “You’re still you?”

“ _Yes_.”

Damon watched the pair of them closely. He curled a hand around Caroline’s arm and she looked at him with something like gratitude. Her conviction seemed to convince Liz. Finally, she nodded.

“Then I’ll keep your secret.”

Caroline’s face broke into a watery smile. “Thank you.”

She scooted around the table and her mother hardly flinched. They hugged, and watching them Damon felt a distant sense of sadness, that he had never been able to reconcile with his family like this; but more immediately he felt... proud. It was an odd feeling, a warm feeling, and Damon wasn’t used to experiencing warmth like that. He stayed very still, almost as though moving might dislodge things somehow. This moment he wanted to keep for as long as he could.

But he couldn’t, because the practicalities of their situation were looming again. Katherine was still on the loose.

“While I’m here,” he said, “you’d better tell me what happened, Caroline. What does Katherine know?”

So they were back down to business again, as Caroline explained what had happened and he resisted the impulse to shake her for being so stupid again, but all the way through he couldn’t quite make himself really want to hurt her. He made it clear to Liz that Katherine couldn’t know that Liz still knew about her, and Liz seemed to take his words to heart this time.

Aware of how much time he had lost, Damon made his excuses and strode out of the house. Caroline followed him.

He turned. “What?”

She stopped, stumbling over her words. “I just wanted to say... thank you. For everything you did back there.”

He shrugged. “I did it to get us out of a pickle. Don’t get all touchy-feely about it.”

“No, but...” She bit her lip. “I know that you really care about my mom. I don’t like the way you show it most of the time, but... I liked you today. I wish we could see more of that.”

He almost couldn’t speak. Caroline Forbes should not be this perceptive. He didn’t know what to do with her sincerity, so he threw it back at her.

“Blondie, if you think that was the real me, you are so wrong. Not gonna happen. The real me is everything that your mom hates and fears, so that’s why we’re never going to tell her, got it?”

“I wasn’t going to.”

“I think that’s enough of my time you’ve wasted,” he said, and he would have left it like that, but something in her eyes stopped him.

She folded her arms. “Maybe you didn’t notice, but I want to help. Since I spent the night dosed up on vervain, I have no idea what’s going on right now. Where’s Elena? And what are we planning to do about Katherine?”

The last thing he needed, Damon thought, was a blonde vampire sidekick. It looked like he was getting one anyway.

*

  
“This spell is the same one I used on Luka,” Bonnie explained. “I’m going to put you into a trance and ask you some questions. Kind of like hypnotizing you. Is that okay?”

She watched Elena’s reaction with some apprehension. Invading someone else’s head was not a nice thing however willing they were, and Bonnie had no idea yet how vampire mind control might affect Elena’s reaction. If it came down to her power fighting against the effects of compulsion, she wasn’t sure who would win.

But Elena nodded and said, “I trust you. Do whatever you need to do.”

So Bonnie got her to lie down on the couch with her head in Bonnie’s lap, and she made sure that Elena was comfortable before sprinkling a little water on her forehead and pressing her fingers lightly against her friend’s temple.

She murmured the spell, and Elena’s eyes fluttered shut. Almost at once, she felt Elena give in to her. Unlike Luka, she wasn’t fighting it; she welcomed the touch of Bonnie’s mind against her own. An image came into Bonnie’s head: the two of them sitting on Elena’s bed, surrounded by floating feathers, laughing in delight.

“That was a good day,” Bonnie murmured, smiling.

A small smile appeared on Elena’s lips. She seemed to be asleep, but Bonnie gave it a few more seconds, making sure that the trance was deep enough.

Standing a few feet away, Stefan watched them anxiously. But he didn’t distract her.

“Elena,” Bonnie murmured, feeling ready at last. “Can you hear me?”

“I hear you.”

“When you were with Elijah, did he compel you?”

“Yes.”

Stefan shook his head, resigned. But she needed to know more. Bonnie continued in the same soft tone. It was essential not to startle Elena, to keep calm and let her words flow over her.

“What did he compel you to do?”

“To stay in the house,” Elena murmured. “And not to harm myself.”

She looked up at Stefan, who was frowning. “What else?”

“Before... He made me tell him where to find the moonstone.”

“Is that it?”

“That’s it.”

Bonnie frowned. Elena sounded absolutely certain; there had been no hesitation in her reply. The spell was designed to elicit the truth, and she was sure that Elena believed what she was saying, but she would have to try harder to dig out anything Elijah had compelled her to forget.

The only problem was, it would hurt.

Bonnie pressed harder. A crease appeared between Elena’s eyebrows; sweat was starting to form on her brow.

“Has Elijah compelled you to believe anything?”

“No...”

She increased the pressure. It was as though she had a band around Elena’s head and with every push of magic, she was tightening that band, crushing Elena’s skull. Except it wasn’t Elena’s skull that was being crushed, it was her mind.

Elena whimpered; she started to move fretfully and Bonnie had to hold her head still. “No... Please... You’re hurting me.”

“Bonnie,” said Stefan, taking a step forward. He looked almost as pained as Elena did. “If this is hurting her, you need to stop.”

“You wanted me to find out whether Elena is being compelled. She’s resisting me... I have to.”

This was killing her too though, seeing her best friend in such distress, and Bonnie tried to get it over with quickly. She fought for control again, tightening the spell, and Elena subsided.

“Is there anything that Elijah has made you forget? Tell me.”

“No. He removed all the compulsion; he gave me back my memories.”

Bonnie looked at Stefan, who looked like he might leap forward and pull Elena away at any moment. She tried one final time. “There’s nothing you’ve been made to forget? No compulsion at all?”

Elena made a little sound of distress, twisting her head. “Y-yes,” she gasped. “But I can’t – he made me forget. I don’t know what it was. Damon made me forget...”

Bonnie froze. She spoke almost without meaning to. “Damon?”

“He made me forget,” Elena whispered. “Damon...”

“What was it?” Stefan asked, suddenly by their side. He looked frantic, voice urgent. “What did he do?”

“What did he make you forget, Elena?” Bonnie asked, and this time Elena groaned and Bonnie suddenly came across something immovable in Elena’s head. Though she had never encountered such a thing before, she recognized it at once. Damon’s compulsion. It was a mental block, literally a barrier, and even if Bonnie had dared to apply enough magic to try and break it, she didn’t think she would succeed. She couldn’t take that risk with Elena.

“I can’t get it out of her,” Bonnie muttered, for Stefan’s benefit. She retreated gradually, watching as Elena relaxed and her breathing slowed. As soon as she felt it was safe, Bonnie removed her fingertips from Elena’s temples. She lifted Elena up, supporting her while they waited for her to wake up.

“Did you get anything?” Stefan asked. “Anything at all?”

“I felt the compulsion. Damon’s compulsion. But I don’t know what memory he took from her.”

What could Damon of all people want Elena to forget? Bonnie looked at Stefan and could tell that they were both thinking the same thing.

Stefan growled. “I’m gonna kill him.”


	17. Three Little Words

Elena woke up with only the haziest idea of where she was. “Elijah?” she murmured, and then felt a female hand curl around her arm.

“Elena.”

She recognized Bonnie’s voice. A moment later she had no idea why she had said Elijah’s name. Had she been dreaming? No, that wasn’t it. Bonnie had been trying to find out if she was compelled. Maybe now they would finally believe her.

Elena found her bearings, sitting up against the couch. Bonnie had an arm around her shoulder and Stefan was standing in front of them, arms folded. He looked pale and agitated, worry lines creasing his brow.

“You’re awake!” said Bonnie. “Thank God, you’ve been asleep for hours, I was starting to think...”

“Hours?” No wonder she felt so stiff. Her limbs were heavy; her mouth felt dry. She was parched.

Stefan knelt down and took her hand. “You okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah... Just tired.” She glanced between them, wondering what she had missed. “So what did you find out? I wasn’t being compelled by Elijah, was I?”

“No,” said Bonnie. “You were right about that.”

She didn’t look anywhere near as relieved about this as she ought to. Elena frowned, confused. “Then what’s wrong? Stefan–”

They were interrupted. Stefan’s head jerked up like a cat that had just spotted its prey. Right on cue, the door to the apartment opened and Damon walked in, accompanied by Caroline and Alaric.

“Evening,” he greeted them. “Is Sleeping Beauty awake? Thought you might appreciate a visitor...”

But the three girls barely had time to smile at each other before Stefan moved too fast for them to see: he slammed Damon against the wall, and Elena gasped; what on earth was he doing?

“What did you do to her?” Stefan gritted out.

Damon was quick to react, despite his surprise. “What?” he spat, shoving Stefan away.

But Stefan didn’t back off. “I said, what did you do to Elena?”

“What did _I_ do to Elena? Brother, you are barking up the wrong tree.”

Angrily, Elena stood up, her fatigue forgotten. Caroline made for Elena the moment Alaric invited her in, and Bonnie stood by her too, the two of them offering their silent support. Ric closed the door behind him, looking wary.

“Stefan, what’s going on?”

Stefan turned, but it was Bonnie he looked at. “Tell them.”

Bonnie lifted her chin. “There’s no point in lying. We know you compelled Elena.”

She heard Caroline let out a breath, saw Damon’s eyes widen, and Alaric shift uncomfortably. Damon wasn’t denying it. He gave her a long look, and Elena stared back. She had no idea what to say. She wasn’t awake enough for this. She felt bleary-eyed, like she was still in a dream and she couldn’t tell the difference between that and reality. Her entire life was too crazy to be reality.

“I’ll ask you again,” said Stefan quietly. “What did you do to her?”

Damon looked between Elena and Stefan before settling on his brother. “I’d say that’s none of your business.”

Piercing electricity lanced between them; the tension in the room was almost tangible. She recognized the way Damon’s posture had changed slightly; he was coiled like a spring, ready to strike, and Stefan was facing him, hands curled into fists, equally tense. Any second now they would fight, and someone would get hurt.

Elena didn’t hesitate. She stepped between them, taking hold of Stefan’s arm and holding up her other hand to Damon.

“Don’t fight. Please. If we’re going to beat Klaus, I need you on my side. Both of you.”

She looked at Stefan first, who bit his lip but didn’t say anything. Then at Damon, who nodded, expression dark. Elena felt a tremor go through her body.

“Did you compel me?” she asked, unable to just let it go.

“It wasn’t anything bad,” said Damon, his eyes begging her to believe him. “I promise you that.”

“If it wasn’t bad, why did you make her forget it?” Bonnie asked.

Elena glanced over at her two friends. Bonnie had her arms folded. She was looking at Damon like he was a criminal who had just confessed. Caroline looked uncertain. For her part, Elena had no idea what to think. She was trying to remember when this might have happened. If it had been near the time when she’d first met Damon... she dreaded to think what his intentions towards her had been then. But she’d always had her necklace.

“Because I didn’t want her to remember,” Damon replied, which told her nothing. “It was... personal,” he added.

Elena looked at him sharply, but Damon had already looked away, not meeting her eyes.

“What does that mean?” Stefan asked.

Damon held up his hands. “Do we really have to go through this now? Katherine and Isobel are lurking around doing God knows what. Compared to that, the memory I took from Elena doesn’t even register as a blip on the radar.”

“Bonnie’s right,” said Stefan. “If it’s so minor, then tell us. Share.”

That wasn’t exactly what Bonnie had said, and Elena exchanged a worried glance with both Bonnie and Caroline. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to hear this. Damon, for all his faults, never did anything without a reason – even if his reasons for erasing one of her memories were entirely selfish.

“Uh, are you sure about that?” Ric asked, giving her a concerned look. Elena shook her head helplessly.

Damon seemed to agree. “You really don’t want me to say this in front of an audience. Especially in front of Elena. Trust me.”

Stefan folded his arms. Waiting. Challenging Damon to say something. The silence was thick with expectation. Elena couldn’t make herself break it. She wanted to know. She didn’t want to know. She knew that they had far more important things to worry about – things in the present – but she couldn’t ignore this either. What was Damon hiding from her?

“All right, fine,” said Damon, and his tone was so breezy that Elena knew the truth that was coming would be deadly serious. “After we rescued Elena from Elijah the first time, I brought her back her vervain necklace, but before I gave it to her, I said a few words.”

He paused. Elena’s eyes had widened; she remembered that night. Damon had appeared in her bedroom to return her necklace. It had been a brief visit. She didn’t remember what Damon had said, let alone if he had said anything of importance. Now she understood why.

“That’s all it was, words, nothing else,” Damon continued. “I’ll spare you the details. Here’s the gist. Three little words. That’s all. By the way, Elena, your uncle-daddy John killed Elijah. Katherine and Isobel were behind it. I’m going to get rid of the body, because apparently I’m the only one who cleans up around here. Later.”

He gave them all a sardonic wave before disappearing too fast for even Stefan or Caroline to follow. Elena was left with her mouth hanging open, and she soon saw that the others were in the same state. He’d done that well, she had to admit. Given them an information overload too big to take in, and vague enough that they really had to work to process it.

She didn’t even know what to think about first.

By some mutual consensus, they all moved to sit down; Elena huddled between Bonnie and Caroline while Stefan took an armchair opposite them and Alaric leaned against the kitchen counter.

“Elijah’s dead?” she managed at last. Her head was starting to pound; she thought that she’d quite like to curl up again and sleep it off.

“When he said three words, did he mean...?” said Caroline at the same time.

“I think he did,” said Stefan, who looked as though he was regretting demanding answers from Damon, just as his brother had predicted.

“What did he mean, killed?” Elena said, almost to herself. “Permanently killed?”

The thought made her feel oddly shaky, like she was teetering on the edge of a cliff and only Elijah had been there to show her the safe way down. But if he was gone...

Alaric shook his head. “No. John had a second dagger.”

“He kept that quiet,” Bonnie muttered.

“He must have got it from Isobel,” said Stefan. “We know they’re working with Katherine.”

“And Isobel’s working for Klaus,” said Elena, her mind waking up at last. “It’s what I’ve been trying to tell you all along. By killing Elijah, you’re playing into Klaus’s hands! He wants to get Elijah out of the way so that Isobel and Katherine can hand me over to Klaus for the sacrifice.”

There was a short silence, which was broken by the sound of a phone buzzing.

“Dammit.” Alaric stood up, phone in hand. “I have to take this. Sorry.”

He hurried out. As soon as he had left, Caroline glanced between them, looking worried. “If Isobel’s here, does that mean that Klaus already knows where Elena is?”

Stefan nodded. “Yes. But none of them know where you are right now and we’re going to keep it that way.”

It took a second for Elena to realize what he meant, and when she did, she gave him a reproachful look. They were all so intent on keeping her wrapped up and hidden away like she was some fragile doll. She shook her head wearily. Confronting Damon, figuring out a way to stop Klaus... She was just too tired to think about it right now.

But she knew one thing. Stefan wasn’t going to keep her here indefinitely. And as soon as she had the chance, Elena was going to wake up Elijah.

*

  
It took Katherine less than two hours to find the moonstone. Damon had hidden it in his soap dish, which was both hilarious and pathetic. She tucked it away with a smile and made herself comfortable on Damon’s bed while she called Isobel.

“I got the moonstone. How are things on your end?”

“Not so good. She wasn’t in Alaric’s apartment.”

Ugh. Katherine pursed her lips. The Salvatores had Elena somewhere, she knew it; that was why the boarding house was empty. She’d track them down sooner or later.

“I’m going to send Jenna after Ric,” Isobel continued. “If anyone can make him spill his guts, it’s her.”

Katherine shifted, plumping the pillow behind her, as her phone buzzed. “Ooh, I have a message.”

“Werewolf news?”

“Maybe. I’ll tell you later.”

She said goodbye to Isobel and ended the call so that she could check her messages. Katherine’s eyes lit up. It was Matt, and he wanted to talk. Well, no time like the present. She had the moonstone, Isobel had everything in hand with Elena, and in the meantime there was nothing to do but wait. Searching the Salvatore house had been boring, and Katherine was in the mood to indulge.

So she went straight to Matt’s house, thinking first of her missing werewolf, and then of Matt’s pretty blue eyes.

She gave him a soft smile when he held the door open for her.

“Hey,” he said. “Come in.”

Katherine stepped inside with a secret flush of triumph – it was always good to be invited in so easily – and looked around. “Feels like I haven’t been here in a while.”

He shrugged, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah... Well, today’s my day off so I figured we had some time if you weren’t busy...”

“I’m here,” she said. “What’s on your mind?”

She soon regretted asking when he spilled out an endless spiel of self-pity. He was straightforward though. She didn’t have to read him; he just spelt it out.

“You know, I thought you might be about to tell me that Tyler’s back,” she said, slightly cross.

He shook his head. “No. No, the thing is... I can’t get that kiss out of my head,” he admitted. “But I’m feeling guilty about Caroline and bad about not trying to work it out with her. I don’t want to hurt her, but... I don’t know. I haven’t seen her around at all.”

“Then why did you call me,” Katherine asked, “rather than her?”

He grinned at that, half-guilty, half-startled. “I guess because... What happened, it reminded me of all the good times we had. And I thought that, if I wanted to work it out with anybody, it’d be... well, you.”

There were many platitudes Katherine could have responded with, but words were not her only weapon. She answered in the best way she knew: by leaning forward and capturing his mouth with hers. This time, Matt didn’t pull away. He leaned right into her, and as Katherine’s fingers ran through tousled blond hair, and Matt sighed Elena’s name into her skin, she thought vindictively of Caroline and how much she was going to enjoy parading her new toy in front of her.

Matt would help her get to the werewolf. Hurting Caroline was a welcome bonus; Katherine never forgot a slight.

*

  
Jenna walked into the Grill to find Alaric hunched over one of the tables, nursing a lonely-looking drink. He looked up, and when he saw her, his face twisted into something like regret. Jenna’s mouth tightened, but she dumped her bag at the table in front of him and sat down.

“Okay, I’m here.”

“Thanks for coming,” he said quietly.

She shrugged. “What do you have to say?”

She was here for one reason only: to find out where Elena was. Whether he told her of his own accord or she had to get it out of him, she didn’t care. She was sick of the lies. Alaric was supposed to love her, but all she could see when she looked at him was a man who had shown her zero respect.

So she wasn’t going to tell him that Isobel had put her up to this.

“Isobel,” he said. “She’s back, and you’re not safe while she’s–”

Jenna couldn’t help it; she laughed. It was a bitter, harsh, ugly laugh, and it shut Ric right up. “I know,” she said. “I know about Isobel, and I know about Katherine, and the one thing I don’t know I seriously hope you’re about to tell me.” She leaned forward and boy, did she have her business face on. “Where’s Elena?”

He stared at her, swallowed. “Katherine didn’t make you forget?”

“Katherine told me everything.”

“Jesus.” He rubbed at his forehead, hair spiking up. “This is bad. I knew I should have gotten you out of that house. But the second I spoke up, Katherine killed me.”

Jenna blinked. “What?”

He held up his hand, the one with the gaudy ring on it. Jenna had told him before what an ugly old thing it was. Even if it did have sentimental value, that didn’t mean he had to wear it. “This ring? It’s like a charm; it protects me from supernatural death. Katherine killed me; I woke up a few hours later in my apartment.”

She couldn’t even begin to get her head around that. Supernatural trinkets, sure; she’d seen and heard enough ridiculous things lately to swallow another one. But when she thought of Katherine killing Alaric, she couldn’t comprehend it. Katherine wouldn’t do that. And besides, he was fine, so it hadn’t stuck.

“All right, we’re going way off-topic here,” she said instead. “Do you know where Elena is or not?”

Something in his expression flickered, an obvious giveaway sign, but he shook his head. “Even if I knew, I couldn’t tell you.”

“I’m Elena’s guardian,” said Jenna, not bothering to lower her voice. She was this close to causing a scene; the man at the bar was already looking at them. “What makes you think you have the right to keep this from me?”

“I don’t. Believe me, I know I don’t have the right. But if Katherine finds out where Elena is, she’ll take her to Klaus. She means to offer Elena up for the sacrifice ritual.”

He said it with heavy certainty, and there was a second when Jenna knew that he was telling the truth, but then she remembered Katherine’s silky tones, whispering, “I’m on your side,” and her nostrils flared.

“No. Katherine’s helping us. She’s been trying to save Elena.”

“As have I,” said another, quite different voice, and Jenna glanced back to see Isobel approaching them. “You’re a liar, Ric. Elena’s shacked up in your apartment. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were hiding something inappropriate.”

She sat down next to Jenna, glancing at her as Jenna bit her lip, furious. “You took her to your apartment?” Her voice trembled. “Without telling me?”

Alaric shook his head wearily. He didn’t look like he had the energy to be surprised, or to make any argument against the two women before him.

“She’s with Stefan. We took her there to protect her. Guess that didn’t work out.”

“You don’t have to worry,” said Isobel. She smiled, showing her teeth. “I won’t tell Katherine.”

“Okay,” said Jenna, standing up. “I just want my niece back. In fact, I’m going over there right now. Ric, you can either take me there or get the hell out, because I don’t want to hear another word from you.”

He didn’t try to stop her. He didn’t say anything. It was only when Isobel offered to give her a ride that Alaric shook his head.

“No – don’t go with her, Jenna, please. I’ll take you. Come on, let’s just... get this over with.”

They walked out, and Isobel touched her arm softly, murmuring that she’d be in touch. She disappeared before Jenna could protest. By then they’d reached Alaric’s car, and she ducked into it, pulling on her seatbelt with shaking hands. Finally, she was going to see Elena again. The thought occurred to her that if Elena’s friends had had their way, she wouldn’t even have been aware that her niece had ever gone missing. They’d made such a fool out of her, all this time.

She looked at Ric. “If Isobel hadn’t said anything, would you have told me the truth?”

He sighed, passing his hand over his eyes. “My ex-wife is a bitch. Don’t listen to her, Jenna.”

“Not what I asked.”

Ric swallowed. “Look, I know I’ve screwed up. But everything I’ve done has been to protect you and your family. You can hate me, I get it. Just know that I... I love you.”

She felt nothing. It was the strangest thing. She looked at him and noticed that he had a tear forming in the corner of his eye, and the word ‘love’ sank into her ears like lead. Everything he said only proved that she had been right to break up with him. Her mouth tightened again.

“Start the car.”

*

  
Damon sat hunched over in his bed, watching Andie apply her make-up moodily.

She looked at him through their reflection in the mirror. “Let me guess, long day.”

“The usual.”

Andie hadn’t helped much. He had drunk, fed and fucked her, and then she had peeled herself away from him to get dressed, saying that she was late for work. He thought about compelling her to stay and gave up almost before finishing the thought. It wasn’t like she was going to stop him thinking about Elena. No matter how glibly he’d said it, she now knew about his little confession.

He stared at the TV screen without taking it in. “Do you ever think that your life is totally out of your control?”

Andie raised an eyebrow. “Are you asking me? I think someone needs to look up ‘irony’ in the dictionary, Damon.”

She had a point. He got up and prowled over to her, nuzzling her neck. “So what’s the rush? Did a cat get stuck up a tree again?”

“Actually, there was an animal attack earlier tonight. The cops found some bodies...”

That stopped him. “An animal attack. Where?”

“In the woods, not too far from here. Why, do you think it was a vampire?”

He frowned, mind working fast. It was true that Mystic Falls was crawling with vampires, but for the most part, they tried to keep a low profile. It wouldn’t be Stefan or Caroline. As far as he knew, Katherine and Isobel hadn’t hunted anybody down recently either. Maybe Katherine had gotten bored.

Before he could formulate a response, however, he heard someone knock at the door.

“Huh,” said Damon.

Actual knocking was rare. Mostly their visitors were vampires or werewolves who liked to break windows or make themselves at home without permission. He thought of Rose, which gave him an annoying twinge somewhere in the region of his chest, and nudged Andie away from the mirror.

“What?”

“We have a visitor,” Damon explained. “Go tell them I’ll be down in a minute.”

She pulled on her jacket and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before leaving. Maybe it was Liz at the door. She was probably his only regular visitor who knocked, and she would know about the animal attacks. So he got dressed and walked down to the entrance hallway at a regular human pace.

It wasn’t Liz. Bonnie was waiting for him.

Damon leaned against the door and gave her his best smirk. “Well, this is a surprise. Come in.”

He led her inside and even offered her a drink, which she declined. She probably wasn’t a bourbon drinker. Damon leaned back on the couch and tried to guess how judgey she was going to be tonight. He figured an eight. On a normal day she’d be a five, but she’d heard about him compelling Elena so she was bound to be extra annoying.

“Don’t tell me,” he said. “You’re here to interrogate me about the compulsion. I should warn you that I’m not in a good mood tonight.”

“No,” she said. “That’s not why I’m here.”

“So why are you?”

She frowned. “Was that your girlfriend who opened the door?”

“Yep.”

“You’re feeding on her.”

She didn’t phrase it as a question. Damon rolled his eyes. “What, did you work that out with your witchy ju-ju? Please tell me that’s not why you’re here.”

She looked nauseous. Well, it wasn’t that different to her usual expression; Bonnie always acted like something had crawled up her nose and died when he was around, but she’d definitely scaled it up a notch.

“You know what, I think I might just go,” she said, standing up.

Damon moved fast, stopping her with a hand on her arm. She flinched, and then gave him a hard look which Damon had started to associate with pain, so much so that he instinctively let go even though she hadn’t actually fried his brain. Yet.

“Whatever it is, tell me,” he said in a low voice. “I know you wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important.”

They stared at each other for several long moments. Damon had absolutely no idea what Bonnie was thinking; he couldn’t read her at all and that was yet another thing that frustrated him about her. Witches. They were always tricky.

Finally, Bonnie spoke. “You know how I said that I was looking for a way to use my power to kill Klaus?”

She had his full attention at once. “Yes? Did you find one?”

“I was lying. I already know how to do it. And the reason I didn’t–” she gave him a look to stop his protest – “the reason I didn’t tell you is because of what will happen if I do. I can only take out one of the Originals, and it has to be Klaus. Because when I do, when I channel that much power... I’ll die.”

Damon had heard this before, from Elena, but because she had heard it from Elijah, he hadn’t fully believed it. Bonnie, however, sounded absolutely certain.

“And why are you telling me this?”

“Because when the time comes, I need your help.”

He gave her an incredulous look. “You want me to help you get yourself killed?”

“No, I want you to make sure the others don’t stop me while I do what I need to do to save Elena.”

There was no hint of faltering, no hesitation in her expression. She knew she would die and she was willing to do it. He had to admire that kind of determination. He would allow Bonnie to die if that meant saving Elena, and both of them knew it. But even so...

“Are you sure?” he asked. “There’s no other way?”

“It takes a lot to kill an Original,” said Bonnie. “No witch could survive it.”

“What about a bunch of witches?”

For the first time she hesitated, biting her lip. “I don’t know. Maybe, if we could share the power. But we don’t have time, Damon, and I don’t have any witches to contact.”

“No witch phonebook?” he joked, and she rolled her eyes but Damon was already turning away. He had an idea. He walked over to a cabinet and opened one of their many drawers of stolen contraband, fishing through the items until he found what he wanted.

Bonnie folded her arms. “What are you doing?”

He’d picked out a cell phone, which he pressed into Bonnie’s hand. “Don’t write yourself off so soon, Bonnie.”

She looked up at him, still uncomprehending.

“You said you wanted to contact witches,” said Damon. “Why not give Luka a call?”


	18. Catching Up

“I’m so sorry, Jenna,” Elena whispered.

She didn’t know what else to say. She felt drained. She was back, finally, in the living room of the Gilbert household, and she hugged her aunt, both of them teary-eyed. Jenna had called Stefan and demanded to take her niece home before she arrived at the apartment. As soon as Stefan had learned that Isobel knew where she was, he gave in.

There was, Elena knew, no point in hiding. Klaus had witches; Klaus knew where she lived. No matter where she went, he would find her.

“These last few days have been crazy,” Jenna admitted.

“I know.”

Jeremy walked in and slumped down on a nearby chair. “Now the whole family knows,” he said. “Speaking of, where’s John?”

Elena frowned. “He’s still here?”

“I don’t know,” said Jenna. “I haven’t seen him since yesterday.”

“Well, I’m not going anywhere,” said Elena. “He can find me if he wants to.”

Knowing that John had killed Elijah didn’t make her feel any more positive towards her biological father. He might want to protect her, but much like Damon, he didn’t want to listen. She huffed and crossed her arms moodily.

Jeremy shook his head. “Elena, can I talk to you in private?”

Jenna interrupted before Elena could answer: “By ‘private’, do you mean talk about vampires without me? Because I’d like to lay down a rule in this house and I’m putting my foot down about this one: no going behind each other’s backs. If we’re going to protect you, Elena, I want to be involved.”

Elena bit her lip. She wished that everyone would stop trying to protect her. Twice now she’d found a solution that would work: first when she made the deal with Elijah, and second when she renewed it after he’d kidnapped her. But everyone kept insisting on trying to kill him, all in the name of protecting her. Couldn’t they let her solve her own problems?

Her expression must have given away her feelings, because Jenna blinked at her, looking hurt.

Jeremy looked over at Jenna. “Will you protect Elena from Katherine? She’s been invited into this house.”

Jenna sighed. “Why does everyone think Katherine is the problem? She’s here to help–”

“What?” said Elena sharply, sitting up. “No, she isn’t, Jenna, she wants to sacrifice me. She only cares about herself.”

“No, she’s been helping me. She and Isobel brought the dagger for me so that I could kill Elijah and rescue you.”

There was a pause during which Jeremy and Elena exchanged dumbfounded stares.

“Wait... _you_ killed Elijah?”

Jenna laughed at the incredulous looks on their faces. “Hey... you’re welcome.”

*

  
“This isn’t going to work,” said Bonnie. “We already tried to call a truce with the Martins once. They made it clear that they weren’t interested.”

“True, Daddy Witch wants nothing to do with us,” Damon conceded. “But I heard you and Luka formed quite a bond before Elena was kidnapped.”

“Yeah, he was into me until I invaded his mind and helped to almost get him killed.”

Damon shrugged. “We all have our bad days.”

She rolled her eyes at him. Trust Damon to treat kidnap and attempted murder as a bad day. She did wonder where the Martins were though... What they were doing. Were they a threat to Elena? Bonnie turned the cell phone over in her hands, switching it on.

“Whose phone is this?”

“Luka’s.”

She gave him a suspicious look. “You were all for killing them before. Why the change of heart?”

“If you’d rather die, be my guest. Yes, I was all for killing them and I will if they don’t side with us, but it’s worth a try. Elijah’s out of the picture, so now we and the witches have a common enemy. It makes sense.”

It did make sense. She was still doubtful about it – even if the Martins were willing to help, she didn’t know if they’d be able to kill Klaus together without anyone dying. On the other hand, Luka had shown her how to channel. Witches could channel their energy together, so maybe it was possible. It was worth asking, at least. She didn’t know. At times like this Bonnie felt desperate for guidance – for her grandmother, for anyone who could help her. Damon and the others constantly expected her to perform magic at a moment’s notice. They had no idea how it worked, how difficult it was with only Emily’s grimoire to guide her.

She definitely wasn’t going to confide in Damon about it. He was looking at her expectantly, with that half-pleading, half-exasperated expression he used whenever he tried to get her to do something.

Finally, she nodded. “Okay. I’ll try.”

*

  
Elena made coffee – black, strong – and leaned against the kitchen counter, expression troubled. It was Monday morning, which meant that she should be getting ready for school after her week’s absence, but Elijah being dead hadn’t solved anything, as she intended to point out. She took a gulp of the coffee and cleared her throat.

“Stefan, we have a problem. Jenna’s been compelled by Katherine and John is missing. What’s going on?”

Stefan had turned up at her house very early – she suspected even before she had woken up, under the guise of escorting her to school. Not that they were fooling anyone; everyone knew the real reason. He wouldn’t let her out of his sight. But before they left for school, she wanted answers.

Stefan shook his head. “I don’t know.”

She frowned. “You don’t look surprised.”

“Ric told me about Jenna. We’ve suspected something was up since Katherine started living in your house.”

It wasn’t only that he didn’t seem surprised, she thought. He looked resigned. The questions tumbled out of her.

“Then why didn’t you do something about it? Why did you let her stay in the house?”

“Elena, you know how hard it is to stop Katherine doing whatever she wants.”

She gave him a look. “How difficult is it to slip Jenna vervain?”

He sighed. “We had... other priorities. You were kidnapped, Katherine was causing all kinds of problems...”

A knot of anger tightened in her stomach. She put the coffee mug down and folded her arms. “Stefan, can I make one thing very clear? I don’t want to be your priority. If my friends or family are in danger, I want you to protect them first. How many times has Jenna gotten hurt because of us? Katherine compelled her to stab herself, and now apparently they’re best friends? No matter what I say, I can’t get through to her.”

“That’s because she’s been compelled.”

That was the bottom line, she knew. Compulsion was absolute. They couldn’t undo what had happened.

She sighed, running a hand through her hair. “How can we fix this?”

“We can’t. At least, we can try, but the only way I can think of is to make Jenna forget everything to do with Katherine. That might be enough to cancel out Katherine’s compulsion.”

“Or we could get rid of Katherine. That would do it too, right?”

“Yes, since she wouldn’t be around for Jenna to take orders from, but like I said... that’s easier said than done.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re making excuses. You were willing to try and kill Katherine before, even though it put everyone in danger. Hey, do you know who would be able to get rid of her without breaking a sweat?”

“Who?”

“Elijah.”

“No.” She opened her mouth to protest, but Stefan held up a hand to silence her. “It’s too risky; I’d rather we handled this ourselves. I know you have faith in him, but have we ever seen him live up to his promises? He was quick to call off the deal after the dinner party.”

“Attempted murder will do that to you.”

“Exactly,” said Stefan. “He has every reason to be pissed off, and I don’t want to deal with a pissed off Original. Not when the original Original could turn up at any time.”

He had a point. She wanted to say that she could deal with a pissed off Original. She thought she could. Elijah needed her, and moreover, he’d proven that he was willing to listen to her. But nobody else was, which meant that Elena would have to take matters into her own hands.

She changed the subject. “What are we going to do about Klaus?”

“Damon said Bonnie had the power to kill Klaus.”

“And I said that it would kill her. That’s not an option.”

He shook his head. “Then I don’t know. What do you want me to do, Elena? I don’t have some magical solution that I can pull out of a hat.”

She gave him a pointed look. “Where did you put Elijah’s body?”

“Elena...”

“Where is he, Stefan? I want to know.”

Stefan sighed. He walked over to stand by her shoulder, brushing her hair out of her face. Elena looked away. “I know what you’re thinking, and I’d agree too – as a last resort. But only as a last resort. Please, can you just give me a chance to fix this first? Tell me what I can do.”

She looked out of the window, at the sun shining on another day in Mystic Falls. “Well, to start off, you can take me to school. I’m late, and I’ve missed a few days.”

*

  
Katherine walked into Isobel’s temporary abode and found a girl she didn’t recognize frowning at her cell phone. It seemed she had made herself at home; a leather bag and a couple of books lay strewn on the coffee table in front of her. The girl tapped a few buttons, bangles jangling on her wrists, before looking up.

“Who are you?” Katherine asked.

The girl paused, eyes widening. She was in her early twenties, Katherine guessed, probably a student Isobel had picked up from the local college.

“I’m Greta.”

“You’re with Isobel?”

She nodded.

“Good,” said Katherine briskly. That was all the information she needed. “I could do with a drink.”

She went straight for the girl’s throat, attacking with little concern for keeping Greta alive; college students were two a penny. Greta screamed and floundered, and Katherine winced for a second when pain shot through her head, but it stopped as soon as it had started. Supernatural hearing had its drawbacks, sensitivity to high-pitched sounds being one of them. She clamped Greta’s arms back, pushing the girl down into the couch as she settled into feeding, and the girl’s cries subsided.

“Katherine.” That was Isobel. “She’s not for killing.”

Katherine let the girl go and sat up, licking her lips. Isobel approached them, wearing an expression of mild concern.

“You can always get a new one, can’t you?” She patted Greta’s shoulder, glancing over to see that Greta was glaring daggers at Isobel.

“Not if we want to keep a low profile. She’s local, and the council is already on the alert. There are bandages in the kitchen,” Isobel added to Greta, dismissing her.

The girl stood up, holding her hand to her throat, and stumbled away. Isobel took her place on the couch.

Katherine frowned at her. “What do you mean the council is on the alert?”

“The sheriff still thinks there are vampires in town. She has no proof, but she’s trying to start up an investigation.”

“Sheriff Forbes,” Katherine muttered. “She was supposed to be ignorant.”

Caroline was supposed to have compelled her. Clearly, she had not obeyed her instructions. As ever, Caroline remained a small but irritating blip in Katherine’s plans. But it wouldn’t take long to fix that.

“Never mind,” she said. “I’ll see to the matter myself.”

*

  
School flew by in a blur. Elena lost count of the number of things people said to her that she didn’t understand – apparently she had been quite the life of the party last week. She also had to apologize to two girls for things that she hadn’t done, and contradict everyone who thought that she and Stefan had broken up. It was tiring, and especially so because it all felt like such a waste of time.

She stopped Caroline as they left their biology class. “Have you seen Bonnie? I want to talk to her.”

Caroline shook her head. “Not since earlier. She’s been trying to get Jeremy to make up with her. Unsuccessfully.”

Elena frowned. “They’re fighting?”

“Oh my God, you don’t know, do you? You have missed so much. We definitely need to sit down so that I can fill you in on everything, okay? Katherine being in school has been a total nightmare...”

She said it in exactly the same tone she might use to describe an annoying cheerleader. Elena shook her head, but she did need to catch up, and Caroline would undoubtedly know far more about everything than what she’d heard from Jeremy. They sat together in the canteen for lunch while Caroline filled her in.

“And then,” Caroline finished, “Bonnie texted me to say that Jeremy still won’t talk to her. So that’s not gonna happen. She totally cockblocked herself again, or whatever the female equivalent of that is. I think she should have jumped his bones when she had the chance.”

Elena couldn’t quite formulate a response to that.

“Sorry,” said Caroline, looking abashed at once. “They were waiting to get permission from you, but then you got kidnapped, so...”

“What about you and Matt?” Elena asked.

Caroline sighed. “I don’t know. Between getting vervained by my own mom and worrying about you, that’s all kind of taken a back seat.”

“I’m sorry.”

She laughed. “You don’t have to apologize. Not your fault that everyone’s after you. But I’ve been thinking, and I’ve come up with a three step plan to–”

She stopped, her eyes moving past Elena to focus on something behind her. Elena twisted in her chair, wondering what could have put such a stricken look on Caroline’s face.

It was Matt.

“Hey, Elena,” he said easily, giving her a warm smile.

“Hey,” she said.

Behind her, she knew Caroline must be watching, but Matt had already excluded her from the conversation by neglecting to greet her. Elena frowned when Matt leaned forward and brushed a strand of hair out of her face.

“I’ve been looking all over for you,” he said. “Do you wanna meet up tonight? I can cancel my shift...”

Elena was baffled. She glanced back to look at Caroline, whose expression was tight-lipped, and then at Matt again. He was leaning just slightly too far into her personal space, far enough to make her uncomfortable.

“I’m – busy,” she said.

He frowned. “All right, some other time – I’ll call you.” Then he brushed his hand over her shoulder and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek – just as he used to do when they had been a couple. Elena blinked, but before she could react, he was already walking off.

She slid around in her seat and gave Caroline a ‘what the hell’ look.

The expression on her friend’s face could only be described as murderous. “Katherine.”

*

  
Bonnie hurried up to Stefan and Caroline outside on the courtyard. They were sitting at one of the picnic tables, talking in low voices. Caroline brightened and gave her a cheery wave when she saw her.

“Hey! Elena’s looking for you.”

Bonnie joined them. She blinked at the mention of Elena – there were so many things distracting her today. “Elena? What for?”

“I don’t know. I’ll text her.”

Caroline pulled out her cell phone while Bonnie turned to Stefan. “There’s something I have to tell you. I called Luka.”

Stefan seemed dumbstruck for a moment and Caroline looked up from her texting, equally surprised, but then he found his voice. “What? Why?”

“I’m going to ask him to help me kill Klaus. Maybe if the Martins help us, we’ll stand a better chance.”

She could tell that he understood from the way he leaned forward, gazing at her intently. “You mean you’ll...”

She nodded. “It’s a possibility.”

Caroline put her phone down and stared at them. “What was that? Are you two talking in code or something?”

“Sorry,” said Bonnie. “I mean that... I haven’t had much luck finding the right spell. The Martins have hundreds of grimoires. If anyone can teach me how to channel my power correctly, it’s them.”

She felt bad even as she said it, and she shared a half-guilty glance with Stefan, but it couldn’t be helped. Bonnie wanted as few people as possible to find out that she might die doing this. She didn’t want to give Caroline the pain and anxiety of knowing that. She and Jeremy had broken off whatever they had for the same reason: he wanted her to be honest with him and she couldn’t be. It wasn’t fair to be in a relationship like that.

“Do you think they’ll agree?” Caroline asked. “I mean, we did kidnap Luka.”

“I don’t know, but he wants to meet me at the Grill tomorrow, so that’s a start. He said I should come alone, but...”

“I’ll be there,” said Stefan immediately.

“And me if you want,” Caroline added. “I have to be there to slip vervain into Matt’s drink anyway.”

She smiled, feeling a sudden rush of love for both of them. “Don’t make yourself obvious, but I’d feel safer if one or both of you were in the background.”

“We’ll both go.” Caroline winked at Stefan. “Call it a date.”

He laughed, looking down a little awkwardly. “Sure,” he said. “It’s a date, and you can tell Elena that to make her jealous.”

It was sweet to see him making a joke, Bonnie thought. Stefan always seemed to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders even when they didn’t have a lot of supernatural trouble to worry about.

“You seem cheerful,” she said.

“Well, I am,” Stefan replied, smiling. “Even with everything that’s going on, I’m just – I’m happy to have Elena back. Speaking of...”

He and Caroline were both looking at something behind her. Bonnie twisted in her seat to see Elena hurrying up to them.

“Hey,” Elena said, “can I have a word with you, Bonnie? No offence, guys,” she added to the others. “It’s important.”

Caroline raised an eyebrow. “Important – as in you can’t say it in front of us?”

But from the way Elena was looking at her, Bonnie could tell that this was important enough to keep it from the others. She bit her lip, standing up to join Elena, and managed to share one backward glance with Stefan before Elena ushered her away.

Elena stopped outside the basketball court, which was a decent distance away but probably not enough for a vampire.

Bonnie folded her arms. “You realize they’re probably listening to us right now?”

“I know,” said Elena, “but if they have any respect for my privacy, they shouldn’t be.”

She clearly wasn’t saying that for her benefit. Bonnie raised her eyebrows, but she was still confused. “So what did you want to talk about?”

“Your plan to kill Klaus,” said Elena. “You’re not doing it; I won’t let you.”

So Elena knew. She was wearing a stubborn expression that Bonnie knew very well: lips pressed tight together, brows knitted, every line of her face taut and determined. But Bonnie was equal to that.

“I’m trying to save you,” said Bonnie. “Whatever it takes. And if you’re worried about what price I might pay, don’t. I can kill him, Elena. I can do that and walk away and then this whole nightmare will be over.”

Elena’s eyes widened. “What are you saying – you could survive?”

She nodded firmly. It was a half-lie, because Bonnie wasn’t at all certain about this, but if she believed it, maybe she could convince Elena too.

Or maybe she was a terrible actress, because Elena immediately frowned. “You’re lying.”

“No, I’m not. Do you think I’d lie about something like this?”

“To stop me worrying, yes, I do. You weren’t going to tell me in the first place, were you?”

She couldn’t deny that. Elena was being hypocritical and they both knew it, because she had tried to hide her intentions of sacrificing herself too. That was how she could tell that Bonnie was doing much the same thing.

“Okay,” said Bonnie. “I wasn’t. But I mean it about being able to walk away from this. I’m meeting Luka tomorrow and we’re going to see if we can figure out how to do it.”

That caught her by surprise. “Luka?”

She nodded. Elena frowned, thinking; a whole host of complicated expressions passed across her face like clouds across the sky, and Bonnie couldn’t interpret any of them.

Finally, Elena said, “Then I’ll come with you. I want to meet him too.”

“He said that he wanted to meet me alone.”

She had the stubborn face on again. “So he’ll have to change his mind. I’m the doppelgänger. I’m what Klaus wants; none of you can do anything without me. You’re not leaving me out of this.”

Bonnie sighed and glanced back to where she could see Stefan and Caroline in the distance. They hadn’t moved; both were watching them, just as she had predicted. Well, she figured that Stefan and Caroline would be there to protect Elena if anything went wrong. Sometimes there really was no arguing with her.

“Okay,” she said, “but you’re buying the drinks.”

Elena looked surprised for a split second, and then she smiled. “It’s a deal.”

*

  
The late afternoon sun shone low but bright when Damon entered the Lockwood mansion accompanied by Liz. He’d called her to find out about these animal attacks, only to hear that Carol Lockwood had called a full council meeting.

“It was a vampire,” Liz confirmed. “The bodies were drained of blood. We found them dumped in the woods. Maybe Katherine’s getting careless.”

“Maybe.”

He was still sceptical about that. Damon was puzzled about this entire thing. It looked as though the attacks had the entire council on the alert, which was really the last thing he needed. The possibility occurred to him that it might have been Klaus. It felt like a cold lump in his stomach.

Damon swallowed grimly, and followed Liz as she led him through the Lockwood mansion.

“So what’s got Carol all riled up?” he asked. “I thought she was leaving the vampires to us.”

“I thought so too, but it looks like things have changed. I got a call from her. There’s someone Carol wants us to meet.”

Damon frowned. “Who?”

“She brought in another vampire hunter. An expert, apparently. Says he’s from England–”

Liz stopped mid-sentence when they both heard laughter coming from the drawing room – Carol Lockwood, and a male voice he didn’t recognize.

“Huh.”

They glanced at each other before entering the room, which was filled with the usual buffoons. Except John, he noted. Most of the council members were drinking herbal tea, helpfully provided by their gracious hostess. Carol Lockwood looked up and smiled at them.

“Liz, Damon, I’m glad you could make it. I’d like you to meet Nick.”

The man standing beside her stepped forward. He appeared to have declined Carol’s offer of tea, which wasn’t very British of him. He was blond, blue-eyed; his eyes glinted when he looked at Damon, and inclined his head to greet both of them.

“So I hear you have a little vampire problem.” Nick smiled. “We’ll soon fix that.”


	19. A Little Vampire Problem

“I’m told that you have a vampire who can walk in the sun, is that right?”

“Yes,” said Liz, sounding surprised that he knew. “We didn’t think it was possible...”

“Oh, it’s possible all right,” Nick drawled. “I’ve seen it before. It’s a witch thing – any vampire who can persuade a witch to protect them from the sun can walk around during the day with no problem at all.”

“I’m sorry,” said Carol, “did you say witches?”

“Yes, there’s a tricky supernatural species. Can be hard to ID them, but the spellbooks and the smell of incense tend to give them away.”

He grinned, cat-like, and several of the council members chuckled, including Carol. Meanwhile, Damon silently fumed. He stayed by Liz, watching as Nick charmed the council members one by one, shaking their hands, making jokes and generally employing all the tactics that Damon himself had used to win them over.

They stopped for a coffee break, and Damon found a quiet corner with Liz out of Nick’s earshot.

“I don’t trust this guy. Who is he? How does he know so much?”

“I don’t know,” said Liz, who alone of the female council members seemed to be unimpressed by Nick. “But we’re desperate, Damon. Maybe he has answers. How do vampires walk in the sun? We’ve believed that they couldn’t for over one hundred and fifty years.”

“And he comes in with some mumbo-jumbo about witches, and you buy that? I want to know who that guy is and why he walked into _our_ secret council without so much as a by-your-leave from me.”

“We’ll run a check on him before we do anything,” said Liz. “I’m not taking any chances.”

As she finished, Nick himself came strolling up to them with a cup of tea, and Damon forced himself to smile.

Nick regarded him with an approving air. “You’re Damon Salvatore, the head of the council. It’s a pleasure to meet you at last. Carol speaks very highly of you.” He held out his hand for Damon to shake, which he did. “I hope you don’t see me as coming in to replace you,” Nick went on. “That’s not my intention. I’m just here to help – that’s a beautiful ring, by the way. What is that, lapis lazuli?”

He let go of Damon’s hand, and his gaze focused on Damon’s ring before looking up to give him a knowing smile.

“That’s right,” Damon said, again forcing himself to smile back although his insides had just tightened. Nick knew. This council meeting had turned out to be a lot more complicated than he had thought.

The remainder of the meeting passed without incident, though Damon kept his eyes locked on Nick the whole time. Finally, people started to file out and Damon bid Carol goodbye with a peck on the cheek before stopping Nick at the door.

“Hey, could I have a word?”

Nick didn’t look surprised. “No problem. Lead the way.”

“So I’m going to get straight to the point,” Damon said, as they walked around the mansion towards the lake. “You know about me, or you wouldn’t have mentioned my ring. What’s your game, Nick?”

“I’m a vampire hunter,” said Nick lightly. “But there’s no need for you to worry, Damon, you’re not my target.”

As if he believed that he was actually a threat. Damon snorted. “Right. So who is?”

“Katerina Petrova.”

He stopped dead. The night air was clear, stars shining down and the lake lit up by a gibbous moon. Damon could see Nick’s face very clearly in the dark: the way his lips curved just slightly upwards, the gleam in his eyes, and the arrogant tilt of his head.

“How do you know that name?” he asked softly.

“It doesn’t matter. The point is, are you going to help me find her, or are you going to get in my way?”

“I don’t give a crap what happens to Katherine. Stake her, torture her, whatever floats your boat. I want to know _why_.”

Nick shrugged. “She pissed me off. Again, it really doesn’t matter. Once my business is done here, I’ll be out of this town.”

Damon stared at him, calculating. He didn’t like people who knew too much. They always turned out to be trouble. The problem was that the last person to swoop into the council and annoy him had been John, and that particular murder hadn’t stuck. His eyes automatically flicked to Nick’s hands, checking for a ring. He had one, but it wasn’t anything like John’s. No, it looked like... Elijah’s.

Damon swallowed.

“Now the penny drops,” Nick murmured, watching him with a sly smile. “You were thinking about killing me, weren’t you? The crazy, impulsive vampire; snaps necks first, asks questions later. An approach I take myself, so you can take that as a word of warning. Don’t get in my way.”

He leaned in very slightly, and for the first time, Damon sensed the power behind the other vampire’s gaze. Klaus could kill him in the blink of an eye. He couldn’t look away.

“Actually, I should thank you, Damon,” Klaus continued, and Damon raised his eyebrows, confused. “You helped take care of my brother, and I believe you have his body. Good work by Katerina there. Clever girl. Anyway, I’d like his body back as soon as you can arrange it, so let me know.” He smiled. “Give my regards to Elena.”

With that, Klaus vanished, leaving Damon alone and feeling very much like they were all completely screwed.

*

  
Elena had distracted Stefan by sleeping with him, which felt more than a little underhand, but even male vampires tended to fall asleep straight afterwards. She left him dozing with his back turned to hers, slipped out of bed and tiptoed downstairs, all the way down to the basement where she knew the Salvatores kept their blood bags. She’d need one if she was going to revive Elijah.

A thought occurred to her. Was his body somewhere in the house?

She paused outside the cellar – a dungeon really; its most recent occupant had been Sheriff Forbes when Damon was waiting for the vervain to leave her system. Opening the door revealed that the room was empty. She glanced around anyway, breathing in the stale dry air, thinking of its other previous occupants.

“What are you doing here?”

Elena jumped and clutched her shoulder bag to her body as Damon appeared in front of her. His expression was as dark as his voice, and she felt grateful that she had already slipped the blood bag into her bag where he couldn’t see it. She backed into the corridor, trying not to look guilty.

“Looking for vervain. I thought you grew it down here.”

He tilted his head. “Hmm.”

There was a calculating look she hadn’t seen directed at her in a while. Now she had to distract Damon too – but she knew exactly how to do that.

“Damon, can we talk?”

“About what?”

She gave him a look. “You know what. About when you compelled me.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Yes, there is,” she insisted gently. “You shouldn’t have done it, you know that, but I want you to know that I’m not mad at you.”

“Good,” he said. “That’s great, Elena. Happy to hear it.”

He didn’t look happy, of course, and Elena thought she knew why. It wasn’t only that he loved her and she didn’t love him back. It was that this fact gave her power over him. He could no longer pretend not to care, and he could no longer walk away when she wanted him to listen to her. He looked like he would rather be anywhere else at this moment, but he stayed still, watching her intently as Elena went on:

“You’re not going to do it again,” she said.

“What, confess that I love you? Wasn’t on my to-do list, Elena, trust me.”

“No, compel me. Whatever you say to me, I have the right to remember. And you don’t have the right to take that away.”

“You’ve changed your tune since Jeremy,” he said lightly, but it was a cutting remark and Elena’s lips tightened at the mention of it.

“I’ve learned my lesson since then. No compulsion.”

Sometimes compulsion was necessary, as it had been with Caroline’s mother, but Elena wasn’t going to add any caveats. She didn’t want to give Damon a loophole. Even if he knew where the boundaries were, he seemed incapable of not overstepping them.

“No compulsion,” he agreed quietly. “You know, you shouldn’t be here.”

“I know.” She closed the cellar door and adjusted her bag. “I didn’t mean to be anywhere I shouldn’t–”

“No, I mean you shouldn’t be here. In this house. It’s not safe.”

Elena frowned at him. “Not safe? But Stefan’s here; how can it be not safe?”

Surely she was as safe with Stefan as she could be anywhere. That was why he had insisted on being her shadow. Elena disliked it and tried to get some breathing space whenever she could, but she understood Stefan’s reasoning.

“Because Klaus is in town,” said Damon grimly. “He’s looking for you, and if he finds you here, there’s nothing either of us can do to stop him.”

It felt like her blood had turned to ice. They’d spent so much time talking about Klaus, anticipating his appearance, that he felt more like a nightmare than a real person: something belonging to the world of the uncanny, the dark – the unreal. She couldn’t imagine him walking around Mystic Falls.

Now he had finally arrived. She swallowed, frozen, and became horribly aware of the beating of her heart, like a clock ticking down to her death. Klaus wanted to drain every single drop of blood from her body. She felt so very mortal, her senses laboured, her lungs tight. Accepting death wasn’t the same as facing it, and Elena didn’t want to die. She didn’t have anything except time. As soon as the full moon rose...

“How much time do we have?” she whispered.

He understood. “A few days. Listen, Elena.” He grasped her shoulders with both hands, forcing her to look at him, to focus. “I won’t let you die. I will do everything in my power to save you. I promise.”

She nodded numbly.

But as they walked upstairs to break the bad news to Stefan, all Elena could think was that she didn’t believe him. He would do everything in his power to save her, but it wouldn’t be enough. Both Damon and Stefan would die trying.

She couldn’t let that happen.

*

  
Caroline drove Elena to the Grill. They’d agreed between them that they would arrive early, as if they were just hanging out. That gave them time to talk to Matt, to scope out the place before Luka arrived, and it also allowed Stefan to slip in quietly whenever he wanted.

With Klaus in town, this meeting seemed more important than ever. Caroline bit her lip as she parked the car. She was afraid. They were all afraid.

“Are you okay?” she asked, turning to Elena.

Elena nodded. “I’m fine.”

“We’re all here for you. Remember that.”

She shook her head. “I’m not worried, Caroline. Honestly. Next to Bonnie is the safest place I can be.”

Caroline sighed, undoing her seatbelt. “Okay.”

They walked into the Grill, a barrage of sounds and smells immediately assaulting Caroline’s senses. When she had first turned into a vampire, it had been too much. Everything was so loud and the warm scent of human life was impossible to resist. Especially blood. She couldn’t resist the blood. That was why she had bitten Matt, why she had to break up with him.

She was in such a different place now. She was sure that she could control herself, and she was also sure what she wanted to do. No more pining. Caroline put on a smile, shared a look with Elena, and made a beeline straight for Matt. He was up near the bar, putting away a tray of glasses.

He looked up and frowned when he saw them. “Hey, guys. I’m kinda busy, sorry.”

“No excuses,” said Caroline. “This is important.”

Elena nodded. “Matt, whatever you think is going on between us... It’s not.”

He stared at her. “What?”

Elena’s tone was sympathetic, but Caroline could hear the note of exasperation in it. She’d be pretty pissed if she’d had to apologize for things that Katherine had done too. “I’m sorry if I’ve hurt you, Matt. That person who led you on... That wasn’t me. I can’t be that kind of girl.”

“So you lied,” said Matt. The hurt in his eyes was obvious, and Caroline wished desperately that they could tell him the truth. She bit her lip, but she couldn’t think of anything to say that might make this situation better. There was nothing else to be done. “You lied about breaking up with Stefan,” he went on, “you _cheated_ on him, and now you come here with my ex-girlfriend to – to what, Elena? Humiliate me?”

“No,” said Elena. Caroline could see her resolve starting to crack; those were tears forming in her eyes.

“Matt,” she said, “that’s the last thing Elena wanted–”

She’d drawn his attention, but not in a good way. Matt looked furious. “What are you doing here, Caroline?”

For a moment, she couldn’t answer. Then she found her voice. “I wanted to talk to you. This has all been really awkward, and I just – I want us to be friends.”

She could have been angry with him for going back to the girl he believed was Elena. Caroline had been careful to make sure that Matt was always on vervain, so she knew that he hadn’t been compelled. Katherine had seduced him, and he had fallen for it. When he had no one to turn to, he’d picked Elena over her, and that hurt but not as much as she had expected. He was Katherine’s victim too, and Caroline could definitely empathize with that.

Katherine had tried to get between them all. Caroline wanted to kill her for it, but she also wanted to prove to Katherine that she couldn’t tear them apart like this. They’d known each other all their lives. Matt and Elena were friends despite their history. It wasn’t impossible.

Matt’s jaw was trembling. Caroline shared a tremulous look with Elena, worried about how he might react.

Finally, he said, “This isn’t the sort of thing I can just get over, Caroline.”

“I know,” she said in a tiny voice.

“You both betrayed me,” he said. “So don’t make excuses.”

She blinked. “What? What did I do?”

“I said no excuses. Just leave me alone.”

Caroline could feel herself starting to tremble. Elena laid a hand on her arm, and it felt like giving her strength.

“We’ll see you at school,” Elena said. “And Matt – I really am sorry.”

They left it at that, Elena gently nudging Caroline to lead her away. Matt didn’t say anything. But at least Katherine wouldn’t be able to take advantage of him, she thought. Her only worry now was if Katherine decided to kill him instead.

Caroline sighed as she slumped into one of the chairs at the far corner of the Grill. “Well, she did it. Katherine successfully turned Matt against both of us. Bully for Katherine.”

She was annoyed about it more than anything else, but when she looked at Elena, she realized that her friend had taken it harder. As resolute as Elena had been, she looked fragile now, and Caroline noticed how thin her arms were as she crossed them, locking her fingers together.

“He’s lost his respect for me,” said Elena. “Who can blame him? After what he thinks I’ve done...”

“He still loves you.”

She shook her head. “He doesn’t, not really. Whatever he got from Katherine, it wasn’t love.”

“Yeah, when are we staking her again?”

Elena laughed softly. Then she looked up at Caroline, her eyes full of concern. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said, echoing Elena’s answer to that very same question. “We weren’t together before Katherine got to him, and we’re not together now. Nothing’s changed except I know for sure that Matt and I can’t work out.”

“Because of me?” Elena bit her lip, looking guilty.

“No, because of him. Maybe he lost his respect for you, Elena, but I don’t know if I ever had it. I tried so hard...” She shook her head. “I was stupid.”

“You are not stupid,” said Elena firmly.

“I just wish I knew what I’m supposed to have done. I never betrayed him.” She thought of the night she had attacked him. “Well, not that he remembers anyway.”

Caroline sighed, sinking down further in her chair, before a familiar voice distracted her. Luka had arrived. And his father was with him.

“They’re here,” she said, getting up at once. “I’ve gotta go, but I’ll stick around, okay?”

Elena nodded, taking a deep breath. “Okay.”

Caroline intended to listen to every word of this exchange. If something went wrong, she’d be there.

*

  
Bonnie rolled her eyes when Damon pulled up in his car, Andie in the passenger seat next to him.

“What are you doing here?”

She’d stopped just outside the Grill to text Elena when she spotted the car going past. He wasn’t supposed to be here. Bonnie hadn’t invited him. She’d specifically told him to stay away, but Damon had a habit of not listening. So she hurried over, intent on telling him to get the hell away.

“Do you think I’d miss the witchy negotiation, part two? As I recall, you and Stefan messed it up pretty badly last time. I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“I’m supposed to be meeting him alone. You’ll scare him off.”

He raised his hands. “I won’t go inside. I’m just dropping Andie off and then I’ll be out of your way.”

“You’re using her to spy for you?” She gave him a disgusted look. This confirmed all her suspicions: he was using the poor woman as a slave, just like he had with Caroline.

“It’s not like that,” said Andie. “We’re here to protect you.”

The smile she wore was supposed to be encouraging, Bonnie thought, but all she could hear were words that Damon had undoubtedly put in Andie’s mouth.

“Stefan and Caroline are covering that,” she said. “We don’t need you, and we don’t need your compelled girlfriend.”

Damon sighed, getting out of the car. At a nod from him, Andie got out too, walking around to loop her arm through Damon’s. Bonnie took a step back. She’d riled him up, and Damon was unpredictable when in a mood, so she had to be ready to deal with that.

“Go ahead, sweetie,” he murmured to Andie, planting a kiss to the top of her head, and she walked off towards the Grill, giving both of them a wave.

Bonnie watched her go, tight-lipped. When she turned back, Damon was leaning against the car with his arms folded. His look dared her to do something about it.

“This has to stop,” she said.

“Mmm, you’re going to have to be a little more specific.”

“Andie. Let her go.”

“Or what?”

She could threaten him with death or extreme pain. Either of those would be easy. Instead, Bonnie lifted her chin.

“Or I’ll tell Elena.”

She’d calculated right; he looked taken aback, the smug look wiped off his face instantly though he tried to hide it.

He affected a shrug. “Tell her what? So I have a girlfriend. Impending disappointment for hordes of women, I know. I guess I’ll just have to break the news that I’m unavailable and kiss away the inevitable tears.”

He really was unbelievable. She glared at him, unfazed. “No, I’ll tell her that you’re feeding on and compelling your so-called girlfriend, just like you did to Caroline. Maybe then she’ll realize that you’ll never change, Damon. You’ll always be the same psychotic vampire who tried to kill me and Caroline, did kill Jeremy, and murdered too many other people to mention.”

He had crossed so many lines already. At that moment, she didn’t care that they were facing a worse enemy, or that Damon was trying to save Elena – he had used that excuse too many times. Somebody had to tell him to stop.

“Wow,” he said. “How’s all that bitterness tasting? And there I thought we were working so well together. Didn’t you just ask for my help to kill Klaus?”

She stared at him evenly. “I asked you because I know you’re the asshole who’d drink to my death. You see how that works?”

“I wouldn’t _drink_ to it...” He grinned. “Well, maybe at the funeral.”

He could be as flippant as he wanted, but Bonnie was deadly serious. She took a step forward. “So don’t mistake the fact that we’re working together for trust. And don’t you dare try anything with Jonas or Luka, no matter what happens. No witch is going to die tonight. Break it off with Andie, don’t kill anyone, and you won’t have to suffer the consequences.”

Her ultimatum delivered, Bonnie gave Damon one last look to make sure he had understood, and stalked off.

*

  
Elena stood up, craning her head to watch the Martins as they walked into the restaurant and looked around. Caroline had already retreated. Stefan was either outside or hiding somewhere nearby, she wasn’t sure. Bonnie though... Bonnie was late, and that was worrying, but it also gave her an opportunity to do what she needed to do.

Luka spotted her first, and Elena nodded at him as they both walked over. He looked wary, but that was nothing compared to his father. Jonas Martin swept his eyes over the entire restaurant before sitting down, clearly suspicious.

“Thank you for coming,” Elena said. She held out her hand to Luka, who shook it. His eyes widened. Elena had just slipped a note of paper into his hand, and she gave him a slight nod, mouthing, “Later.”

Luka covered his surprise well. “We weren’t sure about coming,” he said, “as I’m sure you can imagine.”

He looked up as his father took a seat at the table at last, seemingly satisfied. A shiver ran through Elena when she looked at Jonas. They had not parted on good terms. Though they had been working with Elijah, she knew that they had both suffered at the hands of her friends and they might even be considering kidnapping her themselves.

“Where’s Bonnie?” Jonas asked.

“I don’t know; she hasn’t arrived yet. We can wait for her.”

“She said that she channelled the dead witches’ power,” said Luka.

Elena nodded. “She did. She’s prepared to take down Klaus by herself, but... she wants your help.”

Jonas frowned at her. “Where’s Elijah?”

Elena’s eyes flicked to Luka. The note had disappeared. She supposed that he had hidden it away; he’d have to find some excuse to read it later and then they could talk.

“Dead,” she answered. “I’m sorry. I know you want to save your family...”

“Hey!” That was Bonnie. Elena looked up to see her hurrying over to them, and her face lit up with relief. For a second, she’d worried that something bad had happened.

“Sorry I’m late,” said Bonnie, sitting down next to Elena.

She raised an eyebrow at Bonnie, who shook her head minutely. Obviously it was something that she couldn’t talk about.

“What did I miss?” Bonnie asked.

“I assume this is the part where you beg for our help,” said Jonas, “even though you tried to kill both me and my son.”

It wasn’t the most promising way to start a conversation. Elena looked at Bonnie again, and took a deep breath. They were going to need one hell of a convincing argument.

*

  
The light was on in the Forbes house, so someone was in. Katherine knocked briskly at the door. She had been invited in, of course, but she wanted to find out whether Liz knew about her or not, and breaking in would be kind of a giveaway. So she had straightened her hair, put on Elena’s clothes, and she waited with her best Elena face on: earnest, expectant.

Liz answered the door. For a split second as her gaze fell on Katherine, she blanched, and Katherine knew instantly that she hadn’t been compelled to forget.

“Elena?” Liz faked a smile.

“No,” said Katherine.

Liz’s mouth opened and closed again, worry lines creasing her brow. Her posture shifted; she was reaching for her gun even as she tried to pretend that everything was normal. “I’m sorry, Caroline’s out tonight. I can tell her that you called.”

“No need,” said Katherine smoothly. She stopped Liz lifting her gun with a quick movement of her hand, gripping the woman’s arm and twisting her around to push her inside with enough force to throw the sheriff down the hallway. Liz cried out as she hit the floor heavily.

Katherine stepped inside and shut the door behind her.

The sheriff was on vervain, so biting her was out of the question. A quick neck snap would do the trick. Liz managed to raise her head and scrabble backwards a few inches. Her eyes were wide with terror. Katherine advanced on her, a small smile forming on her lips.

The smile faded the moment she noticed the man leaning by the staircase.

Klaus cocked his head. “Oh, I do love it when they run straight into my arms.”

*

  
Two hours later, Elena sat down exhausted and trembling in the back of Caroline’s car. Jonas hadn’t agreed. He hadn’t disagreed either; he’d said that he’d think about it, which could be his way of buying time or simply delaying them until the sacrifice. It didn’t matter though, because as soon as she left, Elena knew that Luka would tell him about her offer and that would change everything.

All she was waiting for was a text.

Next to her, Bonnie squeezed her arm. “That could have gone a lot worse.”

She nodded.

“Did I tell you guys that Damon and his girlfriend were here?” Bonnie went on, provoking a raised eyebrow from Caroline and a frown from Elena.

“Damon has a girlfriend?” Caroline asked. “Boy, do I feel sorry for her.”

Elena shook her head. She didn’t understand what the big deal was. “Wasn’t this his idea? Why wouldn’t he be there?”

“Let’s just say I was worried he was going to turn this meeting into an ambush.”

“He’s looking out for us,” Elena pointed out. She saw the expression on Bonnie’s face and shook her head. “Come on, he’s trying to save your life too, Bonnie. Him and Stefan... everyone. If we can’t figure out a way to get out of this mess alive together, we might as well give up right now.”

“Agreed,” said Caroline, grinning at her through the rear view mirror.

They were both relieved that she was no longer intending to sacrifice herself, Elena knew, even though she was still prepared to do that if necessary. But learning that Bonnie was planning to do the same did put things in perspective for her. She could not imagine a world in which she lived and Bonnie died, especially not for her. It was too awful to contemplate. And she knew that her friends felt the same way about her.

Her phone vibrated and Elena bit her lip, trying not to rush as she clicked on the message.

“Who’s that?” Bonnie asked.

“Stefan,” she lied. Her heart hammered as she stared at her phone screen. “Checking up on me again.”

The message was from Luka. It said: _I’ll do it._


	20. The Lake

“Caroline. Wake up.”

Caroline stirred, blinking sleepily. She rubbed her eyes, opening them to find her mother hovering over her. “Mom?”

Liz looked as worried as Caroline had ever seen her. “There’s something I have to tell you. Get dressed – Damon’s waiting downstairs.”

Caroline gawked at her. “What? Why?”

Since when did Damon get up at the crack of dawn? The sun had barely risen. But she didn’t complain about that, because the name her mother mentioned set the fear rising in her stomach.

“Klaus.”

She didn’t need to say anything else. Caroline got up without a word, pulled on a dressing gown, and followed her mother down to the kitchen where Damon was waiting for them. Their story was even worse than she had thought.

“I _told_ you that guy was bad news,” said Damon.

Liz shook her head wearily. “You were right.”

Her mother didn’t look worried, Caroline thought. She looked haunted. The shadows under her eyes seemed deeper than usual, and without make-up she looked pale and exhausted.

“So basically you invited in the most evil vampire of all time into our house.” She felt like she was never going to sleep again.

“He threatened me,” said Liz. “He said that – he said that he would kill you if I didn’t do what he said. And then Katherine arrived... It was like he was expecting her.”

Damon leaned forward. “What happened to Katherine? Did he kill her?”

Liz shook her head. “I don’t know. I didn’t see what happened. All I know is that two more people came into the house, and they did something to her... They were chanting. I couldn’t hear what they said. It sounded like a foreign language.”

“Witches,” Damon muttered.

“Well, what did they look like?” Caroline asked. “Did you recognize them?”

“No.” She described them in her typical sheriff’s way: one Caucasian male, thirties, dark hair, well-built, wearing a long coat with a light grey shirt underneath. One African-American female, early twenties, wearing lots of jewellery, long curly hair. Caroline was sure that her information was accurate – Liz was trained for this – but it didn’t give them much of a head start.

“So what did they do to her?” Damon asked.

“Whatever it was, she was unconscious by the end of it. Then they just – grabbed her and left. Klaus too.”

Caroline and Damon shared a look. So they didn’t know whether Katherine was dead. It sounded like Klaus had some other purpose for her. Maybe he intended to use her in the sacrifice. And serve her right, Caroline thought. But she wasn’t sure that Damon felt the same way. He always professed to not give a damn about her, but his eyes told a different story.

“Well, I think it’s safe to say that Katherine is out of the picture,” said Damon at last. “Now our only problem is Klaus.”

“He said he only wanted Katherine,” said Liz. “Maybe he’ll leave town.”

It was awful that they had to crush even that tiny bit of hope. Caroline laid her hand on her mother’s shoulder as Damon broke the bad news.

“Yeah... About that...”

*

  
Alaric stopped Elena before she left history class. “Hey... can we talk?”

“Sure, Ric.” She dumped her bag on the floor and perched on one of the desks. “What’s up?”

“I wanted to ask... Is Jenna okay?”

Elena let out a long breath. “She’s fine, she’s just... There’s no getting that compulsion off her.”

It meant that even though Jenna knew the truth, they still couldn’t tell her everything. It was too risky. She wasn’t sure how much of a hold Katherine had over her aunt. Was it only direct instructions that had an effect? Or would Jenna try to help Katherine out of a sense of misplaced loyalty?

Alaric leaned back and folded his arms. “Right. You know, I kind of wanted to congratulate her on stabbing Elijah. Even if she only did it because Katherine forced her to, that’s pretty impressive.”

“Maybe if we’d told her before, none of this would have happened.”

He nodded heavily. For a few moments, neither of them spoke. Elena was thinking of how resourceful her aunt had proven to be – she didn’t blame her for killing Elijah; Jenna had only thought that she was protecting her niece. They should have told her before. That seemed obvious now.

Her phone rang, and Elena’s heart skipped a beat. “Sorry, I have to get this.”

He raised his hands. “Sure thing.”

She hurried out of the empty classroom and into a throng of students; the noise level immediately shot up.

“Elena?”

She covered her other ear with one hand. “Luka? I’m here. Just give me a second, it’s loud in here...”

She was walking fast while he talked, struggling to hear him. The only good thing about this was that it would be almost impossible for Stefan or Caroline to eavesdrop, if they were even nearby. There was too much background noise.

“We found him,” said Luka. “But it’s not going to be as easy as we thought.”

She pushed open a set of double doors and escaped into the open air. “What? Why?”

There was a pause on the other end. “His body is on the Lockwood property. The only problem is... it’s in the lake.”

Elena stopped short. Damon had said that he’d gotten rid of the body. Clearly, he’d been thorough about it. Her heart clenched. How on earth was she supposed to do this?

*

  
“I don’t normally say this,” said Jenna. “But I’m worried about John. Where is he?”

She was hoping that he had left town. If that was the case, she would rejoice. It was always a downer having an ex in the house, especially when that ex was John. But now that Jenna had been inducted into the supernatural troubles that plagued Mystic Falls, she knew that the real explanation could be much worse.

“Hopefully, dead,” said Damon, prompting exasperated sighs from just about everyone.

Elena and Jeremy were sharing the couch; they’d both come home after school and Damon had turned up with them. This, Jenna gathered, was something that he did a lot. His excuse was that he was covering for Stefan while his brother did his part in controlling the local rabbit population. They were taking it in turns to guard Elena.

Jeremy frowned, glancing down at the ring on his finger. “He doesn’t have his ring. Maybe Isobel did something to him.”

“I thought they were working together,” said Elena.

“They were,” said Jenna, but Jeremy shook his head.

“Isobel was always using John. I saw how she treated him the last time she was here. There’s no love lost between the two of them.”

“Aren’t we forgetting one major player here?” Damon asked. “Klaus.”

“Yeah, so when anyone goes missing, we assume Klaus did it.” Jeremy’s voice was heavy with sarcasm.

Damon rolled his eyes right back. “No, we assume that the Easter Bunny did it. Look, we know he took Katherine. Take a wild guess at who was responsible for those animal attacks that happened right after Klaus got into town. And he’s still got Isobel running around doing his bidding. I’m just saying. We might want to consider it.”

Jenna frowned. There was another thing. Elena had told her that Isobel was supposedly working for Klaus. She didn’t know whether to believe it. Isobel had always been difficult to read.

“Have you seen Isobel lately?” Elena asked her.

“Not since she helped me find you. Katherine mentioned seeing her though.”

That was before she had been captured. Nobody seemed interested in trying to rescue Katherine, despite how much she had helped them. They all thought that Katherine couldn’t be trusted. At this point, Jenna had no idea what to do. She’d been taking her lead from Katherine and Isobel, and now that Elena was back, she didn’t know how they were supposed to stop Klaus.

“Why don’t you call her?” Damon suggested. “Invite her over. I’d love to see her again now that Katherine isn’t around.”

Jeremy made a ‘ha’ sound under his breath. Jenna guessed that there was some history going on there. She’d gotten a lot out of Elena and Jeremy about the events of the past few months, but nobody had mentioned anything about Damon and Isobel. Elena’s only reaction was to bite her lip, which told Jenna very little.

“I can call her,” she said, “but I didn’t think that Elena wanted her birth mother around.”

“I don’t,” said Elena quickly.

“Don’t invite her here,” said Damon, as if she was an idiot for even suggesting it. “Ask her to meet you somewhere else.”

Jenna raised an eyebrow. “And if I do?”

“We’ll have a nice chat. Catch up. Talk about the weather. What do you think?”

Jeremy leaned back to shake his head at Damon. “Dude, she’s Elena’s birth mother. You can’t just kill her.”

It was really weird, Jenna thought, how casually they all talked about killing now. Elena looked torn. She actually looked torn about the prospect of Damon killing her own birth mother.

“If that’s what you’re planning, forget it,” she said. “I’m not going to betray Isobel.”

Damon gave her a disbelieving look. “Did you forget that she’s plotting to kill Elena?”

She’d heard the same kind of thing from Alaric. Telling her not to trust Isobel. But Alaric was a liar and a douche, and Damon was a douche who also happened to be a vampire, so Jenna didn’t put that much stock into anything they said.

“Even if she is, if she’s being compelled by Klaus, that’s not her fault. She doesn’t deserve to die for that.”

Elena sighed. “Jenna’s right. Do what you need to do, Damon, but don’t kill Isobel. When Klaus is dead, the compulsion will wear off... and then I guess we’ll see if she gives a damn about me or not.”

Damon moved to sit down on the arm of the couch next to Elena. His voice became low and serious.

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up, Elena.”

They shared a look, which was a little intense considering there were two other people in the room. Jenna made a mental note to talk to Elena about this some time. She was dating a vampire, spending a lot of time with that vampire’s brother, and she looked exactly like the girl both brothers had fallen in love with over a century ago. Jenna didn’t like to pry, but that situation did not sound healthy.

Finally, Elena nodded, expression resigned.

Jenna cleared her throat to break the silence. “Okay. I’ll call her on condition of no killing. Capisce?”

*

  
The clock tower in Mystic Falls struck midnight. Most of the town’s human inhabitants wouldn’t hear it. They’d be safely asleep in bed, waiting for the sun to rise before greeting the new day. In the Lockwood mansion, Carol Lockwood would be sleeping alone, bereft of a husband and still without her only child.

Or so Elena imagined. It was a melancholy thought, but looking over at that big dark house, she couldn’t help but wonder if Carol was sleeping soundly.

She hoped so. Elena herself was wide awake, listening to the distant sound of the clock tower’s chimes. She drew her legs up and wrapped her arms around her knees, shivering. Elena was doing a lot of things she shouldn’t be doing tonight, and breaking into the Lockwoods’ property was the least of them.

Everyone was going to be so angry with her.

She took a deep breath and looked up at the sky. A few clouds scudded over, but mostly it was clear, the moon shining bright and close to full.

It was a mark of how close they were to the sacrifice. It was also a timer for what she was about to do.

“When the moon shines down in the right place,” Luka had said, “you’ll know, because the water will flash.”

The lake was almost still. She could see the moon’s wavering reflection on the surface. Elena had settled down on the grass to wait. With her, she’d brought a flashlight, a blanket, and a blood bag. Beneath her shorts and her jacket, she was wearing a swimsuit.

The water looked cold. She was mad, crazy to even be contemplating this. Diving in at the dead of night to pull the dagger out of an Original vampire...

She did have help, of a sort. The Martins had found Elijah, and they could bring his body close to the surface using magic. It was a spell that required a place of power, Jonas had said – meaning the house where the witches were buried. He had also said something about the power of the moon which she hadn’t really understood, but at least it gave her a timeframe to work with.

The minutes ticked by, and the moon rose. Then, without any warning, the surface of the water shimmered and it wasn’t the moon reflected there, it was the sun: huge, bright, and blinding to watch. Elena shielded her eyes, a mixture of fear and elation making her heart beat fast and goosebumps rise all over her flesh.

This was the right thing to do. She was sure of that. By reviving Elijah, she would prove to the Martins that she was on their side and they would be more likely to help. He could also help with Katherine and Isobel, who had been plotting against them all this time. And he was the only one who knew Klaus.

The final reason she couldn’t really articulate to herself. She had said to Elijah that he made her feel safe. Elena hadn’t felt that way since he had died. It was like a constant ache in her chest, a gnawing sense of worry, a feeling of powerlessness. She was surrounded by vampires, witches and werewolves, and she was only human. What could she do to avoid her own fate?

What she could do, Elena thought, as she stood up grimly, kicked off her socks and shoes, and took the first step towards the lake, was take matters into her own hands.

*

  
The bar was quiet when Damon walked in. Nobody noticed him; he was moving with the silent grace of a vampire on the hunt, and his target, he hoped, was not expecting him. It only took him a moment to spot her at the bar. Her back was turned, but her long black hair was a dead giveaway.

Damon slid into the seat next to Isobel, and filled up her drink. He gave her a predatory smile as she looked him up and down.

“Oh. I should have known.”

He toasted her, and she clinked her glass against his, smiling back. She seemed unfazed that he had appeared in Jenna’s place.

“How are things with your Original master?” Damon asked. “I hear he got Katherine.”

“He did,” said Isobel, taking a sip from her glass. “I don’t think you’ll be seeing Katherine again.”

He’d expected to hear that, but it still made his heart skip a beat. Katherine was gone. Whether she was alive or dead, she was gone. He took another sip of his bourbon to cover the pause in the conversation before continuing.

“And your other partner in crime, John? He seems to be missing.”

She shrugged. If she had noticed his reaction to the news about Katherine, she wasn’t showing it. “John’s not missing. He’s been in hiding since Klaus arrived in town.”

“Huh.”

That was the problem with Isobel. He couldn’t tell whether she was lying or not. His inclination was to disbelieve every word that came out of her mouth, which meant either that she was bluffing and John was dead, or she was double-bluffing and she had some nefarious purpose for John.

Isobel gave him a small smile, as if she knew exactly what he was thinking.

“So what are you still doing here?” Damon asked. “Keeping watch until Klaus comes to collect?”

She paused before answering him, expression reproachful. “Do you really think that I would sacrifice my own flesh and blood?”

He thought he could see genuine hurt in her eyes, but the best liars could do that. “I think you’re entirely capable of that,” he told her.

“You’re wrong. Klaus has everything he needs to break the curse. We’re running out of time.”

He finished off his own drink, unimpressed. “Nice try, honey. Last I checked he still needs the moonstone.”

“He has the moonstone. Katherine stole it.”

“She what?”

Damon couldn’t disguise his surprise. But it sounded like exactly the kind of thing Katherine would do. The moonstone was his leverage, a way to stop the sacrifice from happening, so of course Katherine had stolen it. Assuming that Isobel was telling the truth – and he would check this the moment he got back to the house – Klaus now had the moonstone. Great.

“You need to tell your witch to act fast,” Isobel went on. “That’s the only chance we have.”

“Don’t pretend you’re on my side.”

“Giving you Elijah’s dead body wasn’t enough?”

“Not remotely enough.”

“That’s a pity,” said Isobel. “Maddox?”

His instincts kicked in a second after the vervain dart hit him in the back of the neck, almost paralysing him. Damon wheezed and staggered forward, but he was too slow to reach Isobel. He had to grab on to the bar to keep upright, knocking his shot glass over in the process. No one else in the Grill seemed to have noticed. Then again, he was probably competing with Alaric as the town’s local drunk.

Isobel stood up easily, placing one hand on her hip. “You didn’t really think I’d let you catch me alone, did you?”

Damon could only blink at her, his vision a hazy, pain-filled mess.

“Leave him,” he heard her order, and then he yanked out the dart with a growl to find himself alone, head still swimming.

*

  
The water was freezing. Elena’s breath came in quick, ragged gulps as she swam across the lake, her eyes fixed on the moon’s reflection on the surface. She kicked out, finding her rhythm, and after several steady strokes she thought that she could see something dark in the water. Twisting, she trod water for a few seconds, glad that she was a strong swimmer. It was definitely him. As the Martins had promised, they had used their magic to dredge Elijah’s body up from the lake, but Elena would have to drag him out herself.

He was about a metre under the surface when she reached him. Elena grimaced. She took a deep breath before plunging beneath the water, kicking her legs to propel her body down. She couldn’t see a thing; it was too dark and the cold seemed to consume her entire body, rushing water obscuring her view. But then her hand closed around a jacketed shoulder and she pulled firmly, heaving his body up with all the strength that she had.

For a moment, she was afraid that it wasn’t going to be enough. Elijah’s body was heavy and she desperately needed oxygen; her muscles felt more and more sluggish. To her utmost relief, she managed to gain momentum, and a second later her head broke the surface. Immediately a cold breeze hit her face as she gasped for air, but she had to work too hard to be properly cold – she still had to get Elijah out of the lake.

Her hands fumbled to get a better grip on his body and found the dagger, still lodged in his chest. With a surge of fury, Elena pulled it out and let it go – it could rot at the bottom of the lake for all she cared – and began the long, laborious process of dragging Elijah’s body to the water’s edge.

Swimming back took a lot longer than finding him. By the time she reached the shallows, Elena was almost spent. She stopped when the water was up to her waist and took a few seconds to catch her breath. Almost there. Finally, she dragged him all the way to the shore and collapsed beside the body, trembling with the cold. Her hair was plastered to her skull; she could feel even the slightest wind piercing through her ears, and her chest felt hollow, her heart hammering inside it.

She didn’t know how long it would take for Elijah to wake up. He was motionless – dead. After a little while of sitting in the dark, she recovered enough to fumble for the flashlight. She switched it on and took a look at him. He looked exactly like any other dead vampire, skin grey and twisted. She’d seen him like this before, when Damon had staked him, except that this time his body was dripping wet, his suit black and heavy.

There was no sign of him waking. She was starting to wish that she’d brought back-up.

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

Elena had never jumped so violently in her life. She found herself almost on top of Elijah’s body, her hand braced against his side, her legs pulled up against her body – but her eyes were fixed on the man who had appeared in front of her.

“John,” she whispered.

He tilted his head, regarding them both with a cold, calculating look. Elena shivered. Something was wrong here. Where on earth had he been?

“Your aunt took a huge risk killing Elijah,” said John, “and here you are undoing all her good work. Where’s the dagger?”

Her expression became defiant. “Gone.”

He laughed. Elena had never heard her father laugh like that: low and bitter, but with an edge to it that made her shudder.

“You know,” he said, “I wonder why I spent all my life trying to protect you. Whether it’s Klaus or your own stubbornness, you were always doomed right from the second you were born.”

He took a step forward, the moonlight throwing his face into relief, and she saw the veins darken around his eyes.

Elena gasped. “You’re–”

“Hungry,” John finished. He snarled, fangs flashing white, and blurred towards her – and Elena screamed, for her own father was about to kill her and she didn’t have the strength to move or fight back; all she could do was scream. His fangs tore into her throat. For a moment there was nothing but pain.

She fell back – something had ripped John away, but she couldn’t see what it was. Her limbs trembled as the world twisted and emptied, a great black maw ready to swallow her up. The ground felt as though it was a mile beneath her feet. She collapsed. There was a blade of grass in front of her eyes that she suddenly thought was endlessly fascinating – the tip of it caught the moonlight, while the edge looked black, and that made it look like a knife, sharpening to a lethal point...

Slow, deliberate footsteps came to a stop beside her. She made an effort to focus, and was grateful when someone lifted her up. Elena wrapped her arms around her rescuer’s neck and let out a small sigh when her eyes met Elijah’s looking down at her. He was awake. His gaze moved to her throat, which was still bleeding, and he licked his lips before meeting her eyes again.

“You’re hurt.”

She couldn’t reply; she was close to fainting. A second later, she blinked as Elijah offered her his wrist; he’d bitten into it too quickly for her to see. She saw the dark drops which had formed on his skin, and didn’t hesitate to lean forward and lap up his blood. It tasted sharp and rich, jolting all her senses back into focus. Her head cleared. She felt the wound on her neck starting to heal.

She looked up, licking the last of his blood from her lips. “Thank you.”

His voice sounded rough, hoarse. “Could I beg of you a drink, Elena?”

He was breathing heavily, she realized. He was still holding her, and she could feel his heartbeat, the vibration of his chest against hers. For a second she thought about what it would be like to let him lick away the blood from her neck, and the heat rose in her cheeks. She let go of him instead, turning around to look for where she had left her stuff.

“I brought you a blood bag.”

She indicated where it was and Elijah moved away from her at once. Elena stood still, arms folded. She was shivering, but at least she wasn’t about to collapse. She gathered up the rest of her things while she waited for him to finish drinking the blood bag, the colour visibly returning to his face. She hadn’t thought about what she would do after waking him.

She definitely hadn’t expected to be attacked by her own father. Elena swallowed. A few feet away, John lay on the ground still and silent.

“Is he dead?” She wasn’t sure which answer she would rather hear.

“No.”

She nodded, and then Elijah silently picked up the blanket and tucked it around her shoulders. She realized that he was waiting for her to decide what to do with John. Elena had absolutely no idea. She turned away from John, glancing up to place her hand on Elijah’s chest.

“Take me away,” she whispered.

Elijah nodded, and in a moment the world had blurred away.


	21. No Running

Elijah took her home. They stopped on the front porch and Elena fumbled for her keys. The house was dark and silent, which meant that everyone was asleep. At least that would make it easier for her to sneak in.

Elijah touched her shoulder. “I won’t be long.”

With that, he vanished before Elena could even look up and protest. She swallowed. She was wet, filthy and bedraggled. Elijah had been in much the same state. The stink of lake water was all over her body and her things. If he had gone to wash and change, she couldn’t blame him.

She walked inside, shutting the door behind her as quietly as she could. It was two in the morning and using the bathroom might wake Jeremy up, but Elena didn’t care. She needed a shower.

Forty minutes later, she had wrung the last of the mud from her hair, shoved her dirty things away and changed into her night clothes. She rubbed her eyes as she walked back into her bedroom.

Elijah was sitting on her window seat, as suited and presentable as if she hadn’t dragged his dead body out of a lake mere hours ago.

Elena paused, feeling a sense of déjà vu as she remembered the last time he had been in her room. Last time she had been scared and uncertain. Tonight she was still scared and uncertain, but for different reasons.

“You look better,” she said.

“As do you.”

She nodded, moving to sit down cross-legged on her bed. “There’s a lot to tell you... But first I wanted to thank you. You saved my life. If you hadn’t woken up when you did...”

“I heard you scream,” said Elijah quietly. “But I wouldn’t have been able to do anything had you not revived me. You went to incredible lengths to do that, Elena. How did you know where to find me?”

She felt herself blushing at his praise, and ducked her head, playing with a loose thread on her shorts.

“The Martins,” she answered. “They helped.”

“How long has it been?”

“A few days.” She shook her head. “It hasn’t been long at all and yet everything feels like it’s falling apart.”

“Your father...”

She bit her lip. Her father was a vampire. She hadn’t even processed that yet. “Yeah, there’s John. And Isobel, and Katherine compelled Jenna, but that’s not all.” She took a deep breath. “Klaus is here.”

She saw his eyes widen, heard his slight intake of breath. Elena went on, explaining everything as quickly as she could, and Elijah listened in silence. He looked deep in thought.

“He took Katherine,” she said. “I don’t know why he went for her first. He must know where I am, but he hasn’t come for me.”

She looked past Elijah and out of the window as she said it, imagining that Klaus might loom out of the darkness at any time. The thought that he might be able to get inside her house... That he could get to Jeremy or Jenna... She clutched her necklace, conscious that it was the only thing protecting her from compulsion.

“Katerina was always quick to run,” Elijah replied. “It suits Klaus to leave you exactly where you are.”

She sat up, tucking her knees beneath her as she leaned forward. “I can’t just sit here and wait for him. Bonnie and I talked to the Martins. We think there may be a way to kill Klaus without going through with the sacrifice. Will you help?”

His gaze focused. She knew that she had his attention.

“Tell me,” Elijah said.

*

  
Early mornings were such a bust. Jenna pulled her hair back into a ponytail, decided that it made her look too much like a schoolgirl, and left it loose again in frustration. Her reflection in the mirror was not impressed. _Image of a responsible parent right here_ , she thought. She used to think that she couldn’t cope with Jeremy taking drugs. A few months later, she kept a wooden stake in her bag at all times and she knew six different ways to use vervain in food. Nobody had told her that parenting in this town would be such a challenge.

But life went on and she had to at least keep up appearances, so she grabbed her phone and hurried downstairs. Elena had beaten her to it. She was already in the kitchen when Jenna walked in.

Elena put her coffee down and looked straight at Jenna. “John’s a vampire.”

Well, that pretty much negated anything she might have to say. Jenna gaped at her. “What?”

“He attacked me last night,” she went on. “Please tell me you haven’t invited him into the house.”

“What – no. I haven’t seen him since he went missing. He _attacked_ you?”

“He’s become the very thing that he hates,” said Elena. “Maybe the only way he can cope is by turning it off, I don’t know. But he’s new, and that means he’s dangerous. You have to be careful, Jenna.”

Her head was spinning. How had this happened? Elena was pouring milk into her breakfast cereal as though this was just another ordinary day for her. Maybe it was.

“But we have a plan,” Elena went on. “Do you know if Damon talked to Isobel?”

“No, I don’t.” She frowned. “Hang on a second – we?”

“Elena and I have a plan,” a smooth voice said behind her.

Jenna froze. Her legs felt like jelly at the same time as they seemed glued to the floor. She thought that she might just keel over. That voice. She turned around and her eyes confirmed the impossible: Elijah strolled into the kitchen, offering her a smile. He looked pretty well for a vampire who was supposed to be dead. Jenna clutched the counter behind her.

She’d killed him. Not even that. She’d _kissed_ him and then killed him. Dear God. What had her life turned into?

“Yeah,” said Elena apologetically. “So I... woke up Elijah.”

“Hello, Jenna,” he said.

“H – hello,” she managed.

“You don’t have to worry,” said Elena, coming around to squeeze her arm. “Elijah’s on our side. He’s not going to hurt you.”

“I killed you,” said Jenna, and then wondered if it might be a bad idea to remind him of this.

“I got better,” he assured her.

Elena nodded. “Elijah’s going to stick around for a little while. We think that John may try to come back to the house. Is that okay?”

Jenna was starting to seriously wonder if Elena was crazy. Wasn’t Elijah planning on sacrificing her?

“Um, do I get a say in this?” she asked.

Elijah stepped forward. “I won’t be in your way. Shall we agree to put that little mishap with the dagger behind us?”

Elena glanced between them. “I’ll let you guys talk it out. I have to get ready for school.”

She picked up her coffee and her cereal bowl and left the room. Elijah’s eyes followed Elena, but he didn’t move. Elena had left her alone with him. Obviously she didn’t think that Jenna was in any danger from the Original vampire she had recently murdered in this very kitchen. Jenna wished that she could be quite so sure.

She brushed her hair back out of her eyes and heaved a sigh. Okay.

“So... You’re not mad that I killed you?”

He shook his head. “I believe Katerina put you up to it.”

“Katerina? Oh – Katherine. Right. But, I mean... you kissed me.”

She trailed off, swallowing. It was probably a bad idea to bring this up too. There wasn’t any prospect of something happening between them again. Apart from the whole attempted murder thing, Jenna had no intention of getting involved with a vampire.

Elijah gave a slight shrug. “As I was stabbed for my trouble, I’ll take that as a rejection.”

That startled a laugh out of her. “Yeah... Wow. Sorry about that.” She paused. “Are you really going to save Elena? That’s not what Katherine said.”

“Katerina isn’t known for telling the truth.”

She bit her lip. “Klaus has her. When you kill him, do you think you’ll be able to save her too?”

For the first time, his face darkened, and Jenna felt a tremor go through her body.

“There is no saving Katerina.”

He wasn’t mad at her, Jenna realized. He was angry with Katherine. The rational part of her mind told her that this was fair enough given that Katherine had plotted to kill him behind his back, but Jenna could see Katherine’s side of things too. She was sure that Katherine had honestly believed that Elijah’s intentions towards Elena weren’t good. Hadn’t Elena believed the same? After all, he had kidnapped her.

There was nothing she could do about that. In fact, she realized, Elena had left her with no choice but to accept the situation.

“Okay,” she said. “You know what, okay. Let’s put this behind us. If you can get over me killing you, then I guess I can get over the fact that you kidnapped Elena and used me to get to her in the first place. Let’s all be friends, why not. Get John out of my nose and I’ll be forever grateful.”

“Wonderful.” Elijah inclined his head. “I’ll see you around.”

He turned to leave, and Jenna hurried after him to check that he wasn’t about to trick her and steal Elena away again. She paused in the doorway and watched Elijah murmur a farewell to Elena, who was just finishing her breakfast on the living room couch. Elena leaned up and gave him such a genuine, warm smile that Jenna felt her stomach flip.

She trusted him. He had some kind of hold over her, a connection that Jenna didn’t fully understand, but she didn’t like it. She had the feeling that something was going to go horribly, horribly wrong.

*

  
Stefan had been giving her his disappointed face all day, but Elena was unrepentant.

“I asked you to trust me,” he said, “and you went behind my back. Why?”

“Because I want to save your lives. Is that so difficult to understand?”

They were at school, which meant that she had to contend with just about everyone when she broke the story. Elena saw no point in hiding the fact that she’d resurrected Elijah. There was nothing any of them could do about it now except for Bonnie – and even Bonnie couldn’t do anything, because she was saving up her magic to use on Klaus.

“Elijah’s been invited into our house,” said Jeremy. “I’ve gotta say, Elena, I really felt safer with him dead.”

“Jer–”

He turned his back on her, shoving some books into a locker. “No, I get it. You decided to put all our lives into his hands. Don’t bother telling me or anything. Why don’t you carry on and make all our decisions for me somewhere else?”

He slammed the locker door shut and walked off, and this time Elena felt the guilt bubble in her stomach.

When she told Alaric, he actually facepalmed. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“No joke, Ric. Think of it like this. With Elijah around, you won’t have any problems with Isobel – or John.”

“Yeah, bring in a bigger bad to get rid of the slightly smaller bads. I’m sure that always works out so well.” He cleared his throat. “Have you told Damon?”

She hesitated. “Not yet.”

“Yeah, I think I’ll let you spill that one.”

“You really are stubborn,” was all Caroline said before hugging her. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Elena. Elijah scares me.”

“Klaus scares me more,” she replied.

Bonnie, however, looked betrayed. “What happened to our plan with the Martins? We were looking for another way. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”

“If anyone can persuade the Martins to help us, it’s Elijah,” she pointed out. “He’s talking to them right now.”

Bonnie looked dubious about that, but Elena would be able to prove that she was right soon enough. Then during the afternoon break, Damon turned up. As Elena had expected, he proved to be the most difficult one of all. He stalked over to Elena and Stefan while they were sitting outside in the school grounds, which Elena was pretty sure wasn’t a coincidence. She gave Stefan an exasperated look and braced herself for the inevitable confrontation.

“You’re an _idiot_ ,” said Damon. “He’s going to sacrifice you! You can’t trust him, Elena. He’s turned you into a lamb going willingly to the slaughter.”

Elena remained stubborn. “I know what I’m doing, Damon.”

“You have no _idea_. What, did you get Stockholm Syndrome while he was keeping you locked up in that fancy old farmhouse? While you were in there, Elijah was out here making deals with Katherine, kidnapping and interrogating me and Stefan, and generally being the Original dick that he is. He’s _bad news_.”

She rolled her eyes. “Just because you’re incapable of trusting anyone.”

He took in a breath then, looking honestly shocked, and Elena realized that she’d gone too far. She shut her mouth, abashed.

Stefan placed a hand on each of their arms, his voice soft. “Look, neither of us is happy about this. But what’s done is done, and now we have to decide what we’re going to do about it.”

“Do you have a dagger handy?” Damon asked. “Because I don’t.”

“What we’re going to do,” said Elena, “is work with him. Both of you have to agree to that. You’ll be of no help to me if you don’t.”

Stefan sighed. “I don’t think we have a choice.”

But Damon was shaking his head. He stood up, his entire body tight with suppressed rage. “Screw you.”

Elena stared after him as he walked off, her heart hammering. “He’s going to do something stupid, isn’t he?”

“Probably,” said Stefan. “I guess we’ll find out how reliable Elijah’s promises really are, huh?”

She sighed. He was not helping. Elijah wouldn’t kill Damon, she was certain of that. Put him in his place, maybe. But Damon’s recklessness could lead him into far more danger than that. He’d already had one encounter with Klaus. Elena wasn’t sure that he would survive another.

*

  
At that moment, Elijah was sitting in the Martins’ new apartment, listening to their side of the story. Elena had told him about their meeting with her and Bonnie. The idea of getting a group of witches to work together to take down Klaus had never been suggested to him. Although Elijah had centuries of experience working with witches, he didn’t know everything about their craft. They tended to be reluctant to disclose anything about how their magic worked, especially to vampires.

“Bonnie’s idea,” he said delicately. “Is it possible?”

Jonas shared a glance with his son. “We think so.”

Elijah narrowed his eyes, a dangerous tone creeping into his voice. “You never told me this.”

“No, because there’s only the two of us. You’d need a lot bigger group of witches to stand any chance of making it out alive.”

“How big?”

“Ten or twelve witches could do it. They’d all need to channel the power of the hundred, and they’d all need to be strong.”

It was difficult enough to find that many witches, let alone find that many who would be willing to help them. Elijah shook his head. “What’s the minimum number of witches that would allow you to do this?”

Jonas paused. “Elijah... If we go ahead with the sacrifice, we don’t have to find any other witches. I promised that I’d help you carry that plan out. Not to get any other witches involved.”

There it was, that witch loyalty again. Elijah leaned forward. “The sacrifice will always be our back-up. If there’s another way to kill him that doesn’t involve the possibility of turning Klaus into an all-powerful hybrid, I’d like to explore it.”

“And a way that doesn’t involve killing anyone else,” Luka added, surprising both of them. He looked at his father. “Wouldn’t that be better?”

Jonas sighed. “I don’t want to put you at risk.”

Elijah looked at them silently. Luka was giving him an appraising look which made him suspect that the boy had seen through his motives. But he had always been the more sympathetic of the two. The moment Jonas had agreed to work with Elijah in order to save his daughter, he had accepted the collateral damage that he knew would come with it. He had never accepted the possibility of putting his son’s life directly at risk from Klaus.

“Seven,” said Jonas at last. “And that would be pushing it. We’d need the power of the full moon to help us.”

“And you shall have it.” He stood up. “Contact all the witches that you know. I’ll tell Bonnie to do the same.”

*

  
Katherine woke up to find herself lying on a four poster bed, a chandelier lit up above her, and Isobel holding her hand. She sat up at once, staring at Isobel with fearful eyes, a single name mouthed soundlessly on her lips. Klaus. He’d taken her. Where was he?

Isobel smiled. “Welcome back.”

“Where am I?”

“My place,” said Isobel. “This is the master bedroom.”

“Klaus... He...”

She looked around. The bedroom was empty except for the two of them. So she could run. She’d get out of here in a flash and then–

“Don’t move,” said Isobel. “Klaus is close by. He won’t be pleased if you try to run.”

She sounded as though she was speaking from experience. Katherine frowned. “He caught you too?”

Isobel leaned back, shrugging. “Oh, he caught me a long time ago.”

Katherine’s eyes widened as the implications of that sank in. Klaus had been playing her. All this time she had been working with Isobel – Klaus had found the one vampire in the world she trusted, and used that vampire to capture her. Silently, she vowed never to make that mistake again.

She swallowed. “What happened? I remember he attacked me and I blacked out...”

“That was two days ago,” Isobel told her. “He’s been waiting for the vervain to leave your system. He did the same with me.”

Without vervain, she was vulnerable to compulsion. Katherine’s hand flew to her neck, afraid that Klaus might have robbed her of the ability to walk in the daylight too, but he had not. Her necklace was still there. It was a small comfort.

“Ah, she’s awake.”

It was him. Isobel stepped away at once, inclining her head as Klaus strolled into the room, smiling at the pair of them.

“Isobel, my love, would you leave us for a moment?”

Katherine watched her only friend, compelled to be her enemy, walk away from her without looking back. She shivered in sympathy when Klaus brushed Isobel’s hand with his as she walked past.

She stood up when Klaus approached her, determined to face him on the same eye level. The power imbalance between them was already wide enough. She clenched her fists to stop them from shaking.

“Isobel’s been very good to me,” Klaus confided. “Mother of the second doppelgänger, best friend of the first. I’ll have to thank her for all her help later.”

“What do you want?”

“First, for you to stay right here.” His eyes bored into her as he spoke, compelling her. “Then, your slow and painful death.”

He said it casually, like it was obvious, and Katherine knew that she was stupid for thinking that she could ever strike a deal with him in the first place. She should have run. Running had served her well in the past five hundred years. Now her feet felt like they were glued to the floor. She couldn’t move.

“I brought you everything that you wanted. You promised that you’d let me go free.”

“Ah, no, Isobel promised you that. I don’t believe we ever shook hands on it. See, I do keep my promises, but Isobel... Isobel, she tells a few whoppers from time to time. One of her less admirable traits.”

Katherine said nothing. She was breathing hard through her nostrils, waiting for the inevitable axe to fall.

“In the meantime,” Klaus added, circling around to clasp her shoulder, “I do have a bit of a dilemma. To break the curse, I have to sacrifice a werewolf, a vampire and the doppelgänger. I have my werewolf, I have my doppelgänger... But I’m still undecided on the vampire. There are so many to choose from.”

He paused. Katherine was starting to realize where this was going. Her heart beat faster.

“So who do I pick? At first I thought Isobel, you know, Elena’s mother. Keep it in the family. Then there’s Caroline, the vampire you picked out for me; the Salvatores, of course – they do love her desperately, I’m sure they’d be happy to die for her... And then there’s you.”

She caught her breath. “You’re going to sacrifice me?”

She twisted her head to look at him as Klaus smiled lazily at her. She could feel him behind her, at her shoulder, and still she forced herself not to shudder.

“It would be fitting, don’t you think, dying in the very same sacrifice you turned yourself into a vampire to escape from all those centuries ago.”

She didn’t think it was fitting. As far as Katherine was concerned, no death was fitting. She was going to survive; she had always intended to survive, and no matter how bleak her situation looked, she wasn’t going to give up.

“Then pick me,” she said. “I know I don’t get a choice no matter what I say. So kill me, or not, but if you do then get it over with.”

He raised his eyebrows, slightly taken aback. She knew that wasn’t the answer he had expected, but she wasn’t going to beg for her life. Not because she wouldn’t if she thought it would work, but because appealing to Klaus’s mercy would do nothing. All she could do was turn things back on him, and hope that he was toying with her. Telling him to do something might make him do the opposite. It was a calculated risk.

Klaus patted her shoulder. “It’s not a full moon yet, sweetheart. There’s still time.”

He grabbed her by each of her arms and pulled her around to face him. Katherine tensed in his grip, her heart hammering, and found that she couldn’t escape his gaze; his eyes locked on hers and she stared, terrified, afraid of what he was about to make her do.

“But first of all,” Klaus whispered, “you’re going to make yourself useful.”


	22. Goodnight, Sweetheart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song referenced in this chapter is [this one](http://youtu.be/egX9N8yOgaU). Also, spot the super subtle book homage.

“Macaroni?” Jenna asked.

Elijah shook his head. “I’m good. But thank you for offering.”

“Sorry I don’t have any O-negative. Or whatever’s – good for you.”

Jenna shot Elena a look, and she bit back a smile. Elena was perched on the kitchen island, phone in hand, while her aunt attempted to ply Elijah with food. She wasn’t sure exactly what Jenna hoped to achieve by that – maybe only a sense of normality – but it didn’t take long for her to huff and give up.

“I’m going,” said Jenna. “I’ll call if I hear anything from John, okay?”

Elena nodded. “Okay.”

She watched her aunt leave and ran a hand through her hair, trying not to worry. It was daylight. Jenna was going to campus; she’d be in a crowded, public place, so there was nothing to worry about.

“When will Bonnie be here?” Elijah asked, interrupting her thoughts.

“Oh...” She looked at her phone again. “Ten minutes. And she said that five minutes ago, so...”

He nodded. She’d asked him to wait, so they could meet with Bonnie before school. Elijah had stayed over, as he had promised, in case John turned up at the house. But there had been no sign of her father.

Elijah watched her, his face pensive. He didn’t look like he had stayed up all night. He was leaning slightly against the counter, a still and unassuming presence, and Elena was struck all over again by the fact that he was an Original. He wasn’t really unassuming at all, not when she looked at him, not when he was considering her and she knew that she could only glimpse a fraction of what he might be seeing when he looked back at her. All that history.

She’d slept better with him in the house.

“Aren’t you tired?” she ventured. “Do you get tired?”

“Sometimes.” He paused, and it looked as though he was about to go on, but then her phone buzzed.

Elena sighed. “Stefan’s going to pick me up for school again.”

“I’ll be gone by then.”

“You don’t have to disappear. I...” She swallowed. She’d been about to say that she liked him being here. “He’s accepted that you’re part of the plan now.”

“Has he?”

“Well, he knows he doesn’t have a choice,” Elena amended. “I can’t say that anyone else is happy to have you back, but...”

She didn’t regret what she’d done, no matter what they said.

Elijah straightened up, and Elena was baffled for a moment when it seemed that he might just leave, but then he murmured, “Bonnie’s here,” as he moved past her, and she immediately slipped off the counter and hurried after him.

*

  
Caroline prided herself on being an excellent multi-tasker. Despite the fact that Katherine had been making her life hell for the past few weeks, despite the fact that her own mother had nearly killed her, and most of all despite the fact that Klaus the big bad Original had been invited into her house, she still found the time to fulfil her duties as the student council vice president and chair of the high school events committee.

This week, that meant organizing the annual women’s charity ball. Mrs Lockwood had agreed that they could use the Lockwood mansion as their venue – she frequently sponsored charitable work – and Caroline had her dress all picked out. Her mother, however, had different ideas.

“I called your dad,” she said, before Caroline could escape out of the house.

She stopped and blinked. “What?”

“He says you can stay with him–”

“I already told you, I’m not leaving.”

“Caroline.” Her mom stepped forward, grasping her by the shoulders. “Please. I’m worried about you. Klaus might come back to the house at any time.”

“But he hasn’t,” she said, “and you won’t leave.”

She’d begged her mother to go somewhere else. They weren’t safe. But Liz gave her the same answer:

“I can’t. I’m the sheriff – I have a responsibility to this town.”

Caroline folded her arms and looked at her mother pointedly. “Well, I have responsibilities too.”

She couldn’t just leave Elena and Bonnie in the lurch. She couldn’t. Her mom had to understand that.

“You’re not any less stubborn,” Liz said, drawing a laugh out of her. “At least go somewhere else. I can hole up in the station – but not if I don’t know you’re okay.”

She thought about it. “I can go stay with Bonnie. Just for a few days. She’s an über-powerful witch, so I’ll be right as rain with her.”

Liz nodded, giving her a teary smile. “Good.” She paused, looking at Caroline almost in wonder. “You really are the same. I was so scared that you wouldn’t be, but you are.”

“Mom...”

Her mother’s emotional state was starting to affect her; Caroline had to sniff and hold back tears. She was glad for this, at least. Her mother had only seen the bad side of vampires for far too long – vampires like Klaus. Caroline might have fangs too, but that didn’t mean she had to lose her humanity. And she needed her mother to hold on to that.

Liz squeezed her shoulder. “You’d better go pack.”

“I will when I come home from school,” she promised, and gave her mom a quick hug before walking out of the house. Her dress would be ruined if she had to crumple it into a suitcase, but Caroline was already thinking of ways around that.

Lost in thought, she nearly bumped into a woman standing next to her car. Caroline blinked. The woman looked familiar.

“Andie Star?”

“That’s me.” Andie gave her a warm smile. She was holding some kind of watch in her hand. “Sorry, I’m just looking for someone, I didn’t mean to get in your way...”

Caroline bit her lip, staring at the watch. It looked old, and it looked familiar. It wasn’t a watch at all; it was some kind of compass, with an arrow that flicked around a couple of times before stopping to point straight at her.

Andie frowned. “That can’t be right. Sorry, honey, can you excuse me?”

With a jolt, Caroline remembered what the compass was – and what it did. It pointed to vampires. Caroline looked at Andie, and her chest felt tight.

“You’re wearing a scarf.”

“Um, yes?”

“It’s a little warm for that, don’t you think?”

Andie looked confused, but before she could reply, the owner of the compass appeared. Damon. Her skin prickled as she watched him lean over to murmur something in Andie’s ear.

He turned to Caroline. “You’re interfering with the signal.”

“What are you doing?”

“What does it look like? Tracking down a vampire.”

“Maybe he’s a little further out of town,” said Andie. “I could drive out a couple miles, see where it takes me from there?”

“Great idea. Go on.”

He kissed her goodbye, and Andie trotted off like the good little slave-minion she obviously was. Well, that brought back memories. It all seemed so far away now – before Klaus, before any of the Originals, before she became a vampire...

Caroline folded her arms. “So is this a one-time compulsion thing, or...”

“She’s my girlfriend,” said Damon, as though compelling his girlfriend to search for an enemy vampire using a magical compass was completely normal. “Why, you jealous?”

“Wow,” said Caroline. So this was the girlfriend that Bonnie had mentioned. Bonnie hadn’t offered any other details and Caroline had brushed the matter off. Now she realized that Bonnie had left an awful lot out.

Not that she was surprised. Damon had done this before. She remembered – it hit her again in a way it hadn’t done in a long time. She remembered Damon having sex with her and feeding on her at the same time, so that pleasure and pain mingled together and she wanted him to keep doing it to her. Sometimes he made her enjoy it. Other times he simply held her down and compelled her not to scream.

Caroline had vowed that she would never do that to another human being.

“I hope that’s not a serious question,” she said. “That’s low, even for you.”

Damon rolled his eyes. “Problem?”

“Um, yes! You’ve turned her into your little slave minion. You did the exact same thing to me, Damon, and don’t think I’ve forgiven you for it.”

“Oh, for... I’ve already had this lecture from Bonnie. Don’t make me rehash it.”

Caroline narrowed her eyes. “And you never even apologized.”

“To you? Do you want an apology, Caroline?”

He was close to her now, with a hand on her shoulder that did not feel reassuring in the slightest. She shivered, the words dying in her mouth.

Damon’s eyes bored into hers and every word felt like a knife in her flesh. “You were a snack I played around with for a few weeks and then I was going to kill you. You should be grateful I let you live.”

Her fists clenched. “I hate you.”

“I don’t care. Run along to school, Caroline. I’ve got a Gilbert-turned-vampire to hunt.”

With that said, he disappeared. Caroline let out a long breath, and dashed angry tears from her eyes. She liked him. She didn’t like him. She hated him. Damon Salvatore was an asshole who had nearly killed her twice, and who had saved her life as many times. Sometimes she thought that they understood each other. Sometimes she thought that made it too easy for him to hurt her.

What she did know was that he was victimizing another woman, and Caroline was an excellent multi-tasker. She pulled out her cell phone.

“Stefan, hey. Do you have any extra vervain? I’m running a little low...”

*

  
“I don’t know any other witches,” Bonnie insisted.

Elena sighed. Cajoling her friend into coming here to meet with her and Elijah in the first place hadn’t been easy, but this meeting wasn’t going as well as she had hoped either. Elijah had been standing behind the couch, watching the proceedings from a slight distance, but now he moved around and she made room for him to sit down.

“No relatives?” he asked.

Bonnie twisted her mouth. “My grandma is dead. My dad’s not a witch, and I don’t know where my mother is. That’s all I can tell you.”

“Can you tell me your mother’s name?”

“Abigail. Abigail Bennett.”

Elena glanced over at Elijah, raising her eyebrows. “Can you track down Bonnie’s mom?”

“I can try.”

Bonnie shook her head. “I haven’t seen her for ten years. I – I don’t know if I’d even recognize her.”

“Bonnie...”

Elena reached out to squeeze Bonnie’s hand, noticing the tears that had formed in her friend’s eyes. It was hard to ask this of her. But they all knew that they had to make this plan work. She bit her lip, glancing up at Elijah. His expression remained neutral as ever, but Elena thought she could read him a little better now. Family was important to him. She was sure that she could see a flicker of sympathy in his eyes.

“There are still three others to find,” said Elijah. “Are your Salvatore brothers acquainted with any witches?”

Elena nodded. “I’ll ask. I know that Damon is. He took me to visit a witch on a trip to Georgia. Maybe Stefan knows someone too.”

“Damon may prove useful after all,” said Elijah, with a touch of irony.

“Yeah...” She frowned. Vampires and witches often seemed to go together. Elijah was working with the Martins; Klaus had his witches. Then there had been Katherine and Emily Bennett back in 1864... “Katherine,” she murmured, a thought striking her.

Bonnie looked puzzled. “What?”

“Katherine,” she said again, louder. “You do know another witch, Bonnie! Remember the masquerade ball? Katherine brought a witch with her; she did a spell to link us together...”

Bonnie’s eyes widened. “Lucy. But – I don’t really know her, Elena, she didn’t leave me with any way to contact her...”

Elijah raised an eyebrow. “This witch is a friend of Katerina’s?”

“No,” said Bonnie. “She was working with her at first, but her loyalty to me was too strong. She turned against Katherine in the end.”

“Then I believe we do have a way of contacting her.” Elijah stood up. “Katerina.”

Elena looked up at him. “But she’s with Klaus.”

“And either your mother or your father may be able to lead us to her.”

She sighed. “Right.”

Elijah clearly suspected that John was under Klaus’s thrall too. But they still had no idea where John was, what he was up to, whose side he was really on... anything. As for Isobel, the last time she had seen her birth mother was when she had first turned up claiming to be on her side. She doubted that her mother would reappear, especially after Damon had tricked Isobel into meeting him.

Part of her – the part that she would never voice and never admit to – hoped that she would never see John or Isobel again. Maybe then it would be easier to move on.

“I’ll return at nightfall,” Elijah promised, and Elena nodded slowly. If anyone could find her birth parents, she was sure that he could.

*

  
As she had promised, after school Caroline packed her bags and drove over to Bonnie’s house. They’d told Bonnie’s dad that they were having a sleepover, so naturally Caroline thought that they should make it one.

She stood in front of the mirror, comparing Bonnie’s two party dresses.

“Is this it? You didn’t go buy anything new?”

“I’ve been a little too preoccupied to go shopping,” Bonnie answered dryly.

“Come on, there’s never a bad time to go shopping – or for any normal teenage stuff. You know what, we should invite Elena. Make it a girl’s night in. I had a really good time at our last sleepover.”

Caroline grinned at Bonnie’s reflection, and her friend smiled reluctantly back. She was sitting cross-legged on her bed, and she uncurled her legs to pull her phone out of her pocket.

“Okay, I’ll text her.”

Caroline put the two dresses away and came over to sit down next to Bonnie. She bit her lip, her expression becoming more serious.

“So, did you have any luck with the witches?”

Bonnie sighed, which kind of set the tone for the entire explanation that followed. Caroline listened with solemn eyes when Bonnie mentioned her mother, Abigail. Bonnie had never really talked about her mom.

“But it’ll be good to see her, right? I mean, she’s your mother.”

“How I feel about it doesn’t make any difference. We need witches. That’s all there is to it.”

Caroline looked down, swallowing. Bonnie hadn’t quite said ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ but the sentiment was there. She shook her head, changing the subject to something a little more general.

“I don’t get why they’re so hard to find. Aren’t witches supposed to be in covens? Like, isn’t there a witch council to do something about all this?”

Most of the fiction Caroline knew put witches in groups. Shouldn’t there be some kind of witch training school? But magic in the real world seemed to be less Harry Potter and more ‘figure it all out from a book’. Bonnie had told her that since her grandmother had died, she didn’t know any other witches. There was no one to teach her and no organization. No Facebook page, no Twitter. Given how powerful they were, Caroline really thought that witches ought to get with the times and talk to each other more.

Bonnie shrugged. “If there is, I don’t know about it.”

“I hate this,” she said. “There should be _someone_ responsible. Whoever the witch was that put that curse on Klaus really sucks for giving him a loophole.”

“Copy that.”

She huffed, and shifted to prop her elbows against a pillow, making herself comfortable. “Speaking of people who suck...”

If anyone could stop Damon from killing her when he found out what she was going to do, Caroline was pretty sure that Bonnie could. Below the belt, maybe – but this was Damon Salvatore. He deserved below the belt.

*

  
Damon dragged an unconscious John into the boarding house before he could go up in flames from the sun. It had been easy enough to find him. There were only so many places a vampire without a daylight ring could go during the day, and with the vampire-seeking compass, Damon soon found the right one. He’d wasted no time, shooting John with a vervain dart and shoving him into the trunk of his car.

The interrogation could happen here. Damon lounged on the couch, legs crossed, and called Elena.

“Daddy’s ready to talk to you.”

“What?”

Damon nudged John’s body with the toe of his boot. “John. He’s right here. Come over to the boarding house if you want to chat.”

He knew she couldn’t resist that. John was the first and easiest on Damon’s list of vampires to kill. Isobel had proven to be trickier than he had anticipated even without Katherine. But before John died, Damon wanted to know how he had turned and more importantly, if he was also compelled by Klaus.

Unfortunately, Elena put a kink in his plans. She turned up only a few minutes after Damon had dosed John up with just enough vervain to keep him weak but still conscious.

But she turned up with Elijah in tow.

Damon was livid. “What’s he doing here?”

“Thank you for taking care of him,” said Elijah, without even looking at him. He sounded like he couldn’t care less. “I’ll take it from here.”

“How about no?”

“Damon.” Elena gave him a reproachful look, grabbing his arm to stop him from getting in Elijah’s way.

He glared at her. “Elena.”

They were caught in a stand-off, but not one he could ever win. Elena had played her trump card. _He’d_ tracked down John, _he’d_ caught him, and he was perfectly capable of finishing what he had started, yet Elena had brought in her new fancy Original vampire to do the job.

John was blinking hazily as Elijah stood over him. “Elijah? Where’s – where’s Elena?”

“I’m here.”

Elena let go of Damon’s arm and hurried over to stand by Elijah’s side, biting her lip as she looked at John. Damon folded his arms and watched with increasing annoyance. He was used to being rejected by Elena in one sense. She didn’t love him. But she’d always needed him. Always relied on him, when push came to shove.

He saw Elena touch Elijah’s arm, almost unconsciously, as if drawing on him for support, and it wasn’t so much jealousy that twisted his guts as the horrible, cloying, stultifying feeling of irrelevance.

“Elena,” John breathed. “I’m sorry for attacking you. I – I wasn’t in my right mind.”

“We can help,” said Elena softly. “I know that this is the last thing you wanted, but it is possible to live a normal life as a vampire.”

He laughed. “A normal life of drinking blood? Never ageing, never changing, but always fighting the instinct to kill. No. I’ve become a monster. I dedicated my life to fighting vampires. I shouldn’t be surprised that they got me in the end.”

Damon moved along the bookshelves as John spoke, looking for the stake that he’d hidden there. They might need it.

“Who turned you?” Elijah asked.

“Isobel. Katherine killed me. I woke up buried. I had to fight my way out of a shallow grave in the woods and then Isobel found me, and she forced me to drink...”

Elena made a little distressed sound, but she controlled herself, and when she spoke her voice was even. “Why did Isobel turn you? What does she want with you?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Damon snorted. Blatant lie right there. Elijah glanced at Elena and then back at John, clearly suspicious.

“Where is Isobel right now?”

“I don’t know.”

“And Katerina? She and Klaus, where are they?”

“I don’t know,” John breathed. “They’re staying somewhere in town, that’s all I can tell you. I never met Klaus. Isobel shielded me from him. Maybe she thought that I could do something to save Elena.”

Damon stepped forward, the stake in his hand. “Yeah, that’s why you attacked her. To ‘save’ your daughter.”

John tried to sit up, groaning, but he was still too weak to move. His eyes flicked from Elijah to Damon, and then to Elena. “Exactly. You should never look to a vampire to save you, Elena. Not the Salvatores, and not Elijah. I know what this is like now. We’re all vampires; we’re all the same. We hunt, we kill, and we can’t stop. I want blood.”

His eyes turned red, his voice distorted by his fangs, and both Damon and Elijah instinctively moved in front of Elena, protecting her.

“Even now,” John rasped, “all I feel is the hunger. You’re my daughter, and all I want is to drink you dry. Don’t think for a second that they don’t want the same.”

All John’s talk of blood inevitably made Damon think of it too – he had wanted to drink Elena’s blood many, many times, and he felt that desire now as he glanced back at her, but not enough to lose control. She was shaking her head, her mouth a thin line, but it looked as though she had taken in every word that John had said.

“He’s a newbie,” said Damon. “They’re all like this at first.”

“Damon’s right,” said Elijah, surprising him. “Your father can learn to control his blood lust, as all vampires must. His self-loathing will be more difficult.”

Tears shone bright in Elena’s eyes. Damon wanted to comfort her, but there was nothing comforting about this situation. He looked at Elijah, who met his eyes for a second, expression unfathomable, before returning his gaze to John.

“I’ve answered your questions,” said John. “I see you have a stake, Damon. I know you’re dying to use it. Go on. Kill me.”

Elena’s breath caught. “No.”

“You know it’s for the best.” He was looking directly at her. “I’m dead already, Elena. My existence is a torment, to me and to you. The greatest gift you could give me is to end it.”

Damon was quite willing to put an end to John, but he didn’t move. It had to be Elena’s decision. He had expected Elijah to kill John by now, but the Original was waiting too, looking at Elena.

The tears streamed freely down her cheeks. “You’re my father,” she whispered, “and I don’t believe that we can’t make this okay. I don’t.”

“Elena.”

Elijah touched her arm, his tone full of concern. His attention was entirely on Elena, and John chose that moment to act. Either the vervain had lost its potency, or John had been acting for the last few minutes, but he leapt up fast and went straight for Elena.

Damon was faster. He met John mid-strike in the blink of an eye, and drove his stake through the other vampire’s heart.

“No!” Elena cried.

But it was too late; John gasped, his skin turning grey, and closed his eyes in a strangely slow, peaceful gesture. Damon caught the body before it hit the ground. He knew why John had done it. Elena wouldn’t have willingly killed him; she would have locked him up and tried to ‘fix’ him, so John had done the one thing that would guarantee his death.

He lowered the corpse to the floor and pulled out the stake before turning back to Elena. She was shivering, clutching Elijah’s arm as he murmured something to her.

“It had to be done,” said Damon.

Elena looked up at him. She took a breath, wiping her eyes. “Thank you for asking me to come over, Damon.”

She said no more, but he knew that she needed time. He nodded, and watched silently as Elijah escorted Elena out of the house. Now he had to dispose of the body.

He’d wrapped the body up and was considering whether to cremate or bury it, when the back of his neck prickled. He wasn’t alone. He wasn’t sure what it was – a sound, a movement he’d felt, but Damon looked up, his eyes sweeping the entire room.

“Well, well,” a familiar voice purred. Katherine seemed to uncurl herself from the shadows. “Look who’s back.”

*

  
Elena stopped outside her porch to say goodbye to Elijah. Inside, the lights were on and she knew Jenna and Jeremy would be waiting. She tried to think of how she was going to tell them what had happened. No words came. She felt hollow.

“Elena?” Elijah frowned at her.

She took a breath, shaking her head. “Sorry. I was just going to say good night. I don’t know what I’m going to say to Jenna and Jeremy... They’ve lost so many people already.”

He paused, expression grave, and then quietly asked, “Do you need company?”

“No,” said Elena, slightly startled by the offer. She looked at Elijah, really focused on him. All this time she’d thought that he would help her because he needed her, because it was better for them to work together against Klaus. Was it more than that? Had she been relying all along on his good grace, his honour, or did she dare to think that he cared about her as more than a tool or an ally?

It was quiet. The darkness was like a shroud, but not the kind where she was afraid to stray; it was warm and comforting and large in its embrace. She could see the softness in Elijah’s eyes.

“I’ll be okay,” she went on. “But thank you for offering.”

He nodded. “Good night, Elena.”

She watched until the night swallowed up his silhouette, and then she sighed and prepared to face her family.

“Jenna?” she called, stepping inside.

No response. Elena frowned. She looked in the kitchen, which was empty, and then started upstairs. She could hear music playing somewhere. It sounded like an old blues tune. Maybe Jenna had gotten nostalgic.

When she reached the landing, however, Elena paused. The music was coming from her room. She knew that she hadn’t left any music playing. Was Stefan surprising her? Or was it something else? Trepidation building in her chest, she walked into her bedroom.

The singer crooned.

_Goodnight sweetheart, well, it’s time to go._

But Elena gasped, because there sprawled on her bed was the corpse of a teenage girl. Blood spattered the covers and smeared the walls. The body was twisted at unnatural angles, as though every bone had been snapped and broken, and where the girl’s chest had been, there was a bloody hole. The girl’s heart had been ripped out.

She stood frozen, shocked, horrified.

An old-fashioned record player stood on her dresser. It didn’t belong to her. The music was still playing the same slow, lilting melody.

_I hate to leave you I really must say, goodnight sweetheart, goodnight._

It felt like a million spiders crawling under her skin. The dead girl’s long brown hair covered her face, and her olive skin was smeared with blood. It couldn’t have been more obvious if Katherine was the one lying dead there.

Klaus was sending her a message.


	23. An Invitation

“No way did you escape,” said Damon. “Klaus made you into his little minion, just like he did with Isobel.”

Katherine shrugged. “Sorry you think that way.”

Katherine compelled – if she was compelled – seemed to be much the same as the usual conniving bitch Katherine. But she’d always been a good actress. The fire burned low, and her eyes glittered in the dim light. She was giving nothing away.

Damon sighed. “So what mayhem have you wrecked this time? John over there is your work, by the way. Thanks for that.”

She glanced over at the body, seemingly uninterested. “Hey, all I did was kill him. I didn’t know that he had turned.”

“And?”

“And I’ve been busy,” said Katherine breezily. “But now I have some free time, so I was hoping you could help me fill it up.”

“Oh, really?”

“Think of it this way,” she murmured, sidling up to press a hand against his heart. “We’re all running on borrowed time. Why don’t we make the most of what little we have left?”

He stared at her, feeling again that betraying tingle in his skin. He didn’t want to admit that any part of him was glad to see Katherine alive, or that any part of him wanted her to want him.

“By seducing and then killing me?” he murmured. “Sorry, Katherine, that’s my thing.”

She laughed. “Damon, if I was going to kill you, I would have done it already.”

Her hand was still on his chest, tugging at the material of his shirt. He looked down in irritation, and then frowned.

“You were busy shopping?”

She was wearing a ring on her middle finger, one that he hadn’t seen before: slim, silver, and set with a small ruby.

Katherine blinked, dropping her hand back down by her side. “It was a gift.”

“From Klaus? You’re already in the lovey-dovey gift stage of your relationship?”

Katherine rolled her eyes at his sarcasm. Behind the forced levity, however, Damon was suspicious. Anything new or different was to be treated with suspicion, especially where Klaus was involved. And he remembered what Liz had said about the witches doing something to Katherine. She might be under a spell as well as under compulsion – but what kind of spell, he had no idea.

“It’s been five hundred years,” she said, deadpan. “What can I say? He doesn’t like to wait.”

“I’m sure you’ll be very happy together.”

“Unlikely.” She leaned up again. “I don’t want him. I want you.”

Her eyes were dark and soft, and for a moment she looked so like Elena that Damon almost cracked. He swallowed. She was playing with him. She was always playing with him.

“You’re sad and desperate,” he told her, turning away.

Instantly, her bored tone returned. “Well, there’s always Stefan. Or Matt. Or Elena – have you ever watched a girl make out with her identical twin? Of course you have.”

He whipped around and found Katherine smirking at him. “Go anywhere near Elena and I will rip your heart out.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t you be saying that to Elijah? He could hardly stay away from his precious doppelgänger. Who thought it would be a good idea to wake him up?”

“Well, why don’t you tell your buddy Klaus, and I’m sure he’ll put that right.”

Finally, she shrugged. “Fine, have it your way. I’ll see you around, Damon.”

She walked off, and Damon searched for his strongest liquor. He was going to need it.

*

  
The first thing Elena did was call Elijah. The call went straight to voicemail and she left him a garbled message, her heart beating frantically in her chest. Then she ran to check the other bedrooms. With every room, a knot of fear twisted itself tighter in her stomach as the thought loomed in her mind: this could be it; this could be the one where she found Jeremy’s body, or Jenna’s body...

But they were all empty. Silently, Elena sank down by Jeremy’s bed, shaking with relief. Her hands fumbled for her phone again.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Jeremy! Jer, where are you?”

“At the Grill.” He sounded annoyed. “Are you checking up on me?”

“Yes,” she said, calming down. “You know the rules. No going out alone.”

That rule had been Jenna’s idea. It was so sensible that Elena immediately agreed to the same thing with all her friends – except Damon; she hadn’t had a chance to talk to him about it, and she had the feeling that he would either ignore her or pretend to agree and then use the rule as an opportunity to stalk her every move. Which wasn’t too far off from what Stefan was doing, but at least Stefan had other people he wanted to look out for too.

She was breaking that rule now, but she hadn’t expected to find herself in the house alone.

“Yeah, I know,” said Jeremy. “Actually, Jenna’s here with me.”

“She is?” Relief flooded through her.

“Yeah. Keeping her distance, by which I mean she’s up at the bar. We’ll be late. I think I might be driving us home tonight.”

“Right,” said Elena. “Okay. I’ll see you later.”

She leaned back, resting her head against the wall. Her heart was still beating fast. She didn’t think that she could face going back into her bedroom again. Just the thought of what waited there... She thought that she could smell the blood even from Jeremy’s room, and felt sick.

“What happened?”

Elena looked up and saw Elijah standing there in the doorway. She gestured over to the bathroom that connected her room with Jeremy’s.

“My room...”

He disappeared at once. Elena closed her eyes for a long moment. She had to pull herself together. Steeling herself, she stood up, and followed Elijah back into her bedroom. He had switched the record off. The silence was thick and the smell worse. Elijah moved to stand over the corpse, examining it with a detachment that Elena was unable to muster.

She swallowed. “It was Klaus, wasn’t it?”

He looked up and nodded.

She pressed her lips together. “Does that mean he can get inside the house?”

If he could, all hope was lost. None of them were safe from him.

“Not if he hasn’t been invited in. This could be someone else’s work.”

Like Isobel, she thought. Or Katherine. Even if Klaus couldn’t enter the house, he could still use other vampires to get to her.

Elijah reached down and picked something up from the girl’s body – a card – then held it out to her. Elena blinked. She hadn’t noticed the card before, but it had been left on the girl’s hand, the fingers loosely curled around it. Which meant that it had been planted deliberately.

She stared at the card, and her lips trembled. _You are cordially invited to..._

“This is my invitation to the Lockwood party.”

The meaning was clear. Elijah said it: “Then I’m afraid you’ll have an unwanted guest.”

She shook her head. “All this... just to send me a message?”

“Klaus likes to play with his victims,” said Elijah. “He’ll want to meet you before the ritual.”

“And if I don’t go?”

“Your family will suffer the consequences.”

It was like a death sentence. Losing Jenna and Jeremy... She couldn’t bear it. She felt paper-thin, like the faintest breeze could blow her over, and she closed her eyes, shuddering.

When she opened them again, Elijah was regarding her with a faintly pitying expression, which disappeared the moment she looked at him.

“I’ll dispose of the body,” he said.

“I have to go,” she said. “To the party. I have to do whatever he wants, until we get the chance to kill him.”

He paused, and then moved towards her. Elena felt her chest tighten at the look in his eyes. She didn’t know if it was fear or something else.

“You won’t go alone,” Elijah promised her. “I’ll see to it that your family is protected in the meantime.”

Later, after Jenna and Jeremy arrived home, after she told them about John, Elena finally returned to her room to find it as spotless as if the entire thing had never happened. Elijah’s word was the only thing that allowed her to sleep.

*

  
Damon had John buried in the Gilbert family plot. Not out of respect for John, but because Elena had asked him to.

The following morning, the Gilbert family visited the plot to briefly pay their respects while Damon and Stefan watched from a distance. It wasn’t a proper funeral, not really. They didn’t have time for that. But neither he nor Stefan could deny Elena a few minutes to mourn her father, no matter how dangerous it was for her to be out in the open.

“She doesn’t blame you,” said Stefan. His hands were in his pockets; his expression was sombre as he watched Elena place a flower on John’s grave.

“I know,” he said.

He’d always been undeserving of Elena’s forgiveness. Technically, he had killed both her parents. Jeremy was still with them only by a lucky chance. But she had offered her forgiveness anyway, and she’d even thanked him for saving her life. He watched as Elena stood up and looked down at the grave one last time before turning away.

They both fell silent when the family headed back towards the house. Jenna walked past first, nodding at both of them. Jeremy seemed lost in his own thoughts. Elena stopped when she reached them and folded her arms.

“Okay,” she said. “Now we have to decide what we’re going to do.”

So much for mourning. They followed her back into the house. Elena sat down on the living room couch and went straight into determined martyr mode. Her every word dripped with the self-righteousness that Damon found so infuriating.

“If you don’t want me to be sacrificed, then we have to go ahead with the plan,” she said. “Elijah’s looking for Bonnie’s mom. If we can find Katherine, then maybe we can get hold of Lucy. But that still leaves two other witches. Damon, can you contact the witch we met in Georgia? Bree, right?”

Stefan glanced at him, raising an eyebrow.

Oh. Damon opened his mouth and then shut it again. “Yeah, slight problem with that,” he said. “She’s dead.”

“What?”

“Dead. Vamoose. Shuffled off her witchy coil.”

Elena looked distressed. “What happened?”

Well, this was awkward. The last time they’d had a situation like this was when Stefan had forced him to admit why he had compelled Elena. His past deeds seemed to keep coming up, and not in a good way. Elena had known the witch for five minutes, and yet she looked honestly sad at the thought that Bree had died. Well. He’d just have to disappoint her, again.

Damon shrugged. “I killed her.”

“What?” She stared at him, and yes, that was her shocked and disappointed face. She should have been used to him murdering people by now. Stefan, on the other hand, did not look surprised. He just leaned back against the couch and sighed.

Elena drew a breath. “On our trip to Georgia? You killed her?”

It was cute that she called it ‘our trip’, as though they’d planned a day out. He had the feeling she might be about to stop doing that. “Yep. Don’t look so surprised, Elena. She almost got me killed. Of course I had to get rid of her.”

Elena held up her hand. “Look. Just – stop talking. So you killed Bree. Any other witches you know that you haven’t murdered?”

“Sorry, I’m all out.”

The truth was that he’d adopted Bonnie as his go-to witch, which now that he thought about it was probably not the best idea. But she was conveniently local.

Elena sighed. “Great.”

“What about you, Stefan? You’re awfully quiet. Haven’t you come up with anything?”

If she was going to be mad at him for not having any witches to hand, she should be mad at Stefan too.

“The last witch I knew who wasn’t a Bennett was in the 1920s,” Stefan replied. “I’m guessing she’s probably dead.”

Which was equally useless. They’d gotten no further. “Can I ask one question? What’s Elijah doing to contribute to this gathering of witches?”

“I already told you,” Elena replied. “He’s gone to look for Bonnie’s mom.”

He rolled his eyes. “Sure. And when he comes back and says sorry, no luck, I’m sure you’ll believe him.”

What pissed Damon off was that Elijah had basically hijacked his plan, and that meant they were depending on the Original to go through with it, which meant that it wouldn’t happen. They could have found the witches on their own. They could have gone through this entire thing without waking Elijah up, and yet Elena didn’t seem to realize that. He hoped that Katherine would pull through and snitch on Elijah to Klaus.

“We’ve been through this,” said Elena, who remained as stubborn as ever. “Why don’t we just concentrate on trying to get through tonight? Are you coming?”

“Yes,” he said.

He couldn’t stay away if Klaus was going to turn up. In fact, he had decided that he might just concoct his own plan – assuming that Bonnie would play nice. Knowing that Klaus would be there gave them an opportunity which no one else seemed to be taking. If nothing else, Elena needed both he and his brother there to shield her from Klaus. After what he’d heard about Klaus’s bloody invitation present to Elena, it was clear that the Original was every bit as sadistic as a vampire could be.

Elena nodded. At least she didn’t try to dissuade him, or maybe it was too much effort. Damon watched her, studying the expression on her face – did she realize what she was getting into? What Klaus might do to her?

“We should tell everyone else too,” Stefan added. “We need to keep everyone up-to-date on our strategy.”

He looked at Elena, squeezing her arm, and she buried her head into his shoulder. They were trying to keep everyone in touch and up to speed, which was an admirable sentiment, but personally Damon thought it involved too many useless people – like Jeremy. Or Caroline, who was inconsistently helpful at best.

Damon raised an eyebrow. “We have a strategy?”

“Our aim is to make sure that no one gets hurt,” said Stefan. “Our strategy is how we’re going to do that.”

“Well, that makes it crystal clear, brother. Thank you for that.”

“It’s a good idea, Damon,” said Elena. “You’re the only one who’s met Klaus in the present day. You’ll have to tell everyone what he looks like, so we can avoid him.”

“Sure. I’ll draw you a picture.”

She huffed, giving him an unimpressed look, but Damon grinned lopsidedly and eventually she shook her head and smiled back. He was glad that he could get that much out of her at least, even under the circumstances.

“Well, I’ll look forward to it,” said Stefan. “I’m staying over with Elena, so don’t wait up.”

Stefan wasn’t exactly subtle when he wanted his brother to leave. Damon took the hint and shrugged, standing up. “As you say, brother. But if I were you, I’d look out for Elijah. He just can’t stay away.”

Stefan frowned, holding Elena a little tighter to him, and Elena rolled her eyes at both of them.

“He’s protecting me,” she said. “He needs me alive, remember? I’m his ticket to luring Klaus. This isn’t a competition, guys. You don’t get brownie points for hovering over me the most.”

Damon gave his brother a look, a flicker of understanding passing between them. As far as he was concerned, it was a competition – it was always a competition with Elena. She wasn’t Elijah’s to protect. And that, he thought, might be something he and his brother could agree on.

But all he said was, “I’ll bear that in mind. Later.”

*

  
Elijah tracked Bonnie’s mother down to an apartment in Manhattan. The moment he had heard the name, he’d known. Abigail Bennett was a witch he had history with, though the last time they had met she hadn’t used the Bennett family name. Yesterday, he had been sidetracked when Elena called him back to deal with John. Today, he’d found the right place.

This apartment belonged to an Abby Brooke. It was high-rise, expensive, and in an area of town that Elijah himself had stayed in before. He knocked at the door, and smiled pleasantly when its owner opened it.

“Abigail. Lovely to see you again.”

She froze. Abigail was a beautiful woman, with liquid brown eyes and the grace of a panther: both strong and elegant. But at the sight of him she blanched, her hand gripped the door handle like a vice – and then, without a word, she slammed the door shut.

Elijah allowed himself to feel just a twinge of annoyance. Her reaction wasn’t unexpected. “Abigail,” he called. “I just want to talk.”

No reply. He could hear her heart hammering on the other side of the door though; she was listening to his every word.

“I hear you have a daughter,” said Elijah. “Bonnie, isn’t it?”

He heard her gasp, though she tried to muffle it. He gave her a couple of seconds to think it over. Then, slowly, the door creaked open and Abby stood trembling before him.

“You stay away from her.”

*

  
Damon went over to Andie’s place. With all the unwanted visitors they’d had to the boarding house lately, he figured he had a better chance of talking to her in private elsewhere. She had invited him into her penthouse apartment, so it seemed like the obvious option.

Andie opened the door when he knocked and raised her eyebrows at him. “Damon? What are you doing here?”

He walked in without asking permission, heading straight for the kitchen area. “Forming a plan. How do you like vervain in your coffee?”

Andie folded her arms, staring at him. “Excuse me?”

He looked up from picking out the coffee mugs. “Vervain. Obviously before I give it to you, you have to promise to do everything I say, but...”

Her laugh was disbelieving. “You think you can come in here and woo me with coffee? I’m sorry, but that’s not going to happen.”

He stopped, took a moment to process that, but no. Still not making any sense. Frowning, Damon approached her, catching her gaze.

“Did I miss a significant shift in our relationship?”

“How about the part where we’re no longer in a relationship?”

She had an attitude. He liked that about her, but he also liked being able to shut her up whenever he wanted. Damon’s eyes narrowed. Someone had been messing with his compulsion, and he was pretty sure that he knew who.

“Well, that’s convenient,” he said.

“I’m sorry if it wasn’t clear to you, Damon. But I think it’ll be easier if we have a clean break.”

He gave her a tight smile. “Sure. Just out of curiosity, did you happen to talk to any teenage girls recently? Say, blonde, annoying ones? Say, Caroline Forbes?”

“Caroline? Yeah, I saw her today.” She raised an eyebrow. “Are you dating her now?”

He shook his head. “Been there, done that. I can’t persuade you to take me back?”

“No.”

Her answer was firm. He guessed that she had been both compelled and given vervain to prevent any further mind control. How annoying.

“Are you angry?” Andie asked, her voice betraying a quaver for the first time.

He had to take a moment to calm down. “No, I’m not angry.”

Caroline had gotten one over him, which was unacceptable, but it would have to wait. He needed to be in Bonnie’s good books tonight. He hadn’t broken up with Andie as Bonnie had demanded, but if he left her alone and didn’t kill her that counted for something, right?

So Damon controlled himself and said goodbye to Andie, already thinking about what he could do next. They had a day to prepare for Klaus’s arrival. And as much as he hated it, he needed Bonnie on his side.

As soon as he was out of the apartment block and hurrying down the street, he called her. She didn’t answer. He let it ring until it went to voice mail, cursed, and tried again. It started raining and Damon headed for the shelter of a few trees, turning his jacket collar up against the wind. He tried a second time, with no luck. Bonnie was available. He knew she was. She was just refusing to answer.

The third time he tried, she answered at once, snapping at him.

“What do you want?”

“A few minutes of your time. Come over. Let’s talk.”

“Can’t you take a hint, Damon? I don’t want to talk to you.”

Typical Bonnie. She only ever approached him willingly when she needed him for something. He’d accuse her of using him, but then he’d be a hypocrite.

“Then why did you answer?”

“I figured if you’re that desperate to reach me, something must be going on.”

“Yeah, and if someone was dying, they’d be dead by now because you didn’t answer on the first ring.”

She sounded alarmed. “Someone’s dying?”

“No, it was a hypothetical example. I have good news. Andie and I have officially broken up, and I’m going to the Lockwood party as a free and single man. Wanna be my date?”

He heard an intake of breath. “You broke up with her?”

“As promised. Anything for you, Bonnie.”

“Oh, don’t give me that. Caroline told me what she did. Just tell me that Andie’s okay.”

“Alive and well. And lucky. You and Caroline could very easily have caused Andie’s death with that little stunt.”

“You mean _you_ might have killed her because you’re a psychotic vampire who murders innocent people when you don’t get your own way?”

It was like water off a duck’s back. He’d heard all this before. “You are worse than Elena. Come over? Please?”

She paused. “I’m guessing you have an ulterior motive.”

“Well, why don’t you come over and find out?”

Bonnie sighed, but he knew that he had her. He ended the call as soon as they had agreed and looked up at the sky, which was black with cloud. Even a vampire without a daylight ring could go out in this weather. The rain was pouring more heavily; he tucked his cell phone inside his jacket pocket and sped the rest of the way home.

*

  
“You know, the last time I attended an event at the Lockwoods’, it was Katherine who dressed me up,” said Jenna.

“Well, Katherine’s gone,” said Elena. “Get over it.”

She was snippy every time Jenna mentioned Katherine. Jenna shrugged, smudging her eye shadow. “Okay. I was just saying. But we know Klaus is going to turn up. Who knows who’ll turn up with him?”

“That’s exactly why I don’t want you to go.” Elena frowned at her through her bedroom mirror.

“And that’s exactly why I am going.” She finished off with a flourish of eyeliner. Now to make her other eyelid look the same – which was where Jenna always fell down.

Elena put down her straightening iron with a sigh. “Too many people I care about are going to be there, and that only gives Klaus more opportunity to kill the people that I love. We’re just asking for trouble, Jenna – and I’m sorry, but you being there isn’t going to help. You can’t protect me.”

“So I stay at home and wait? Am I safer here?”

Jenna thought it was pretty obvious that she wasn’t safe anywhere. Klaus might not be invited in, but he could compel other people to invade their house and kill any of them. He could do that at anytime, anywhere. For the first time, Jenna was really starting to realize just how dangerous vampires were. Elijah had been a walk in the park compared to this.

“Yes,” said Elena. “The Martins are coming over, and they’re going to do a spell to protect the house. All you and Jeremy have to do is stay here, and you’ll be fine.”

She made a face. “Sorry if I find it hard to put my faith in some witch’s spell. If staying here means we’ll be safe, why don’t you stay too?”

“If I do, Klaus will find out, and he’ll get his revenge. I don’t want to give him a chance to get creative.”

No. She was just letting him walk right into her life, the same way she had done with Stefan and Damon, the same way she had done with Elijah. She looked weary, like a beaten warrior. Jenna hated to see her niece like that.

“Anyway, while you’re worrying about me,” Elena went on, “what about Jeremy? I’m going to have this same argument with him and I don’t know if I’m going to win.”

She paused. “Jeremy’s not going to stay at home unless we make him, is he?”

“Which is why you need to stay here and make sure that he’s okay.”

Elena had brought out the parental responsibility card. Jenna couldn’t really argue with that one. They all had to look out for each other, and if Damon and Stefan were taking care of Elena at the Lockwood party, then she couldn’t exactly leave Jeremy on his own. She couldn’t let him go to the party either. This was life and death. John was already gone. Any of their family could be next – including her – and their survival could depend on the decisions she made tonight.

She could go to the party and become Klaus’s next victim. Or she could stay behind and suffer through the uncertainty, waiting to hear who he’d killed next.

Given all that, Jenna didn’t really feel like partying.

Elena was watching her, eyes full of a sad wisdom beyond her years. “Please take care of Jeremy for me.”

Jenna swallowed, hesitating.

A knock at the door interrupted their conversation.

“Speak of the devil,” said Jenna.

That would be him. Jeremy didn’t normally interrupt while they were getting ready to go out, but if he did, he always knocked first. Jenna leaned back in her seat and called out.

“Come in.”

She nearly fell off her chair when Isobel entered the room.

Elena reacted in the same way; she leapt up, horrified, and almost burned herself on the straightening iron in the process. “Isobel.”

Isobel closed the door behind her quietly and leaned against it. She looked older somehow, Jenna thought. As if she was tired.

“Hello, Elena. Jenna.” Isobel spoke in the same flat, smooth tone she always did. “How are you?”

“I’m – good,” Jenna replied, thrown off by the question.

Elena had walked over to stand by her, laying a hand on her shoulder as though she might defend her aunt. It felt like a weird role reversal. But Elena also seemed much more scared of her birth mother than Jenna was.

Elena was trembling. “What do you want?”

“I’m sorry about John,” said Isobel. “I never loved him, but he was your father. And he was the only good parent you had left.”

Jenna shared a startled look with Elena. How did Isobel know about John? She felt a knot tighten in her stomach at Isobel’s words. She thought that John was a shitty parent, but he had loved Elena, none of them could deny that. She’d shed a tear over his death when they’d visited his grave that morning, and that was something Jenna had never thought she’d do.

“ _Jenna_ is the only good parent I have left,” said Elena, and Jenna felt a warm rush of affection for her niece. Elena had always had a fiery streak, but she’d never seen her so staunch, so determined. All this supernatural stuff had brought out the fighter in her. Maybe she wasn’t so defeated after all. “What do you want?” Elena asked again.

“I have a message to deliver. Tell Elijah that Klaus wants to meet him an hour before the party tonight. He’ll be outside the Grill.”

Jenna blinked. Seriously, where was Isobel getting her information? Elijah had made it very clear that they should keep the fact that he was alive a secret. Maybe John had told her.

Elena said nothing, but Jenna glanced up at her and saw that she was equally surprised. Her face had set into a stubborn little frown.

“I’ll see you at the party, Elena,” Isobel added, and promptly disappeared.

“Yeah,” said Jenna finally, breaking the shocked silence. “What did I say about Klaus bringing guests?”


	24. Brothers

“I owe you nothing,” said Abby. “You promised to leave. I want nothing to do with you or any of your screwed-up family.”

Elijah leaned back, his voice as soft as hers was harsh. “And what about your family?”

They were sitting at a booth in a little French cafe not far from Abby’s apartment. Of course she had refused to invite him in – but it had only taken the mention of Bonnie to make her agree to come out. Ambient music played in the background; a fan whirred. It was enough to cover their conversation.

Her mouth trembled. “What have you done?”

“I’ve done nothing. Your daughter has taken it upon herself to attempt to kill Niklaus. Now I’m sure you understand the consequences of that, so I’m giving you the chance to ensure that it doesn’t turn out badly for her. Help me to kill Klaus, and you’ll help your daughter live to see another day.”

She was silent for several moments. A waiter came over to serve them coffee, which Elijah accepted with a thank you, but Abby was too distracted to notice. He poured a cup of coffee for her.

“Sugar?”

“This is you,” said Abby. “You’re forcing her to do this, aren’t you?”

“As a matter of fact, no.” He left the sugar. She probably wasn’t going to drink anything anyway. “But that’s irrelevant. Klaus is in Mystic Falls, and Bonnie is going to kill him with or without your help.”

Abby’s expressions were never hard to read. She was seething; both hate and fear clouded her eyes. It didn’t matter though, as long as she agreed. She had helped him almost a decade ago when he was keeping track of his brother. That particular favour had been an ordeal for which she’d never forgiven him.

Elijah felt his phone buzz inside his jacket pocket and nodded at her. “Excuse me. I’ll be back in a moment.”

He stepped into the bathroom. The caller was Elena.

“Elijah,” she said at once. “You have to come back to Mystic Falls. Klaus knows you’re alive, and he wants to meet with you.”

It looked like Elijah wasn’t going to finish his coffee either. All his insides tightened at once. He hadn’t had a conversation with his brother in well over a hundred years. Since then, he had learned that Klaus had killed his last surviving sibling, leaving him utterly alone.

And now his bastard of a brother wanted to talk. About Elena, no doubt.

“I’ll be on my way,” he said.

She paused. “Did you find Bonnie’s mom?”

“Yes, I did.”

She let out a breath. “Thank God. Elijah, you have to be careful, okay? This could be a trap – what if he has another dagger?”

Of course, the possibility had already occurred to him.

“Then I’ll hope he’s less adept than your aunt at wielding it.”

“I mean it. I don’t want to have to undagger you again.”

“You won’t.”

She was silent for a moment, and he was about to say goodbye when she spoke again. “Can you come over first?”

He frowned. “What for?”

“I want to talk to you in person.”

That wasn’t an answer and both of them knew it. But if she wouldn’t give him a straight answer the first time, Elijah doubted that she would if asked again.

“Very well,” he relented, and she thanked him before hanging up.

Elijah sighed. He and his brother had a lot of catching up to do. But most of all Klaus would be suspicious; his brother was nothing if not paranoid, and he was always looking for a way to get one over on his enemies. Of which Elijah was now one, so he had to tread carefully. Especially when it came to Elena – if Klaus thought for even a second that Elijah wanted to save her as he had wanted to save Katerina... He didn’t know what Elena was thinking asking him to meet her, but he would have to make that clear.

He returned to Abby and shook out a few notes from his wallet to pay for the coffee. “I’m afraid I have to go,” he said. “Think about what I’ve said, Abby. You have until the full moon.”

She stared after him, stricken. Elijah didn’t look back. He’d given her enough information for now. Abigail Bennett would return to Mystic Falls if only to find out whether her daughter was truly in danger – and then Bonnie could do the rest.

*

  
Bonnie turned up at the boarding house with an unexpected guest in tow.

“Did I ask you to bring Blondie?” Damon groused.

“No,” said Bonnie.

“But I thought she could use backup,” Caroline finished.

They were like twins – well, except for the looks. Non-identical twins. But they both had one hand on their hip and they were both wearing the exact same expression. Exasperated, he let them in anyway. He really needed to find a human owner for the boarding house. Then he could keep Caroline and all the other vampires he didn’t want out.

They followed him into the living room where Caroline helped herself to one of his blood bags. He was practically keeping her, Damon thought. She should be paying him for that.

“Since you’re here,” he said, “I’ll start by teaching you a little vampire etiquette.”

Caroline looked up from her drink and raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Now you’re going to start teaching me?”

“Interfering with an older vampire’s compulsion? Not the done thing.”

The smirk she gave him was eerily reminiscent of the look she had when she first turned and told him she had a message from Katherine.

“Problem?”

Damon shrugged, aware that Bonnie was standing next to Caroline and watching his every move. “Not a problem, no. Of course, if you ever interfere like that again, I will hunt you down and stake you.”

Bonnie folded her arms. “Not if I stop you first.”

Now he understood what they had meant about backup. One of them alone was annoying enough. Together, they outranked him and they knew it. Outranked by a pair of schoolgirls. It rankled. It rankled a lot. He had to bite his tongue, remembering why he had asked Bonnie to come here in the first place.

“Bonnie,” he said. “May I say that you’re looking particularly... divine today?”  
She gave him a look. “Okay, spill. What do you want?”

“The ball tonight. Up for a little magic?”

Caroline glanced at Bonnie before putting down her drink. “Elena thought that you’d do something stupid. It doesn’t involve a dagger, does it?”

“Look, Tweedle-dum,” he said, “I’m here to talk to Tweedle-dee about how we can potentially take down Klaus at the party. Your input? Not required.”

Caroline’s brow creased. “Wait, we’re taking down Klaus at the party? I thought we were waiting for the witchy army to arrive.”

“Caroline, what did I just say?”

“She’s right,” said Bonnie, stepping forward. “I don’t understand. Wasn’t this your idea in the first place?”

“Yes, it was, until a certain Original got himself undaggered and decided to take over the show.”

Caroline made a disbelieving sound. “What? You decided to change your mind and get Bonnie to sacrifice herself just because you don’t like Elijah?”

“Bonnie,” he said, deciding to ignore Caroline altogether, “I’m not asking you to sacrifice yourself. I’m asking you to be there, so that we have a weapon in case Klaus decides to make trouble. That’s all. If Elijah turns on us – which he probably will – then you’re our best shot and we’ll probably never have a better opportunity than we will tonight.”

“I see,” she said.

“Bonnie.” Caroline’s voice was pleading; she had a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “You’re not really gonna listen to him, are you?”

“No, he’s right,” said Bonnie. “I’ll be there to stop any trouble. There might be more than one vampire who needs to be stopped. Until the other witches arrive... it’s up to me.”

Occasionally, Bonnie’s stubborn refusal to listen to anyone but herself worked in his favour.

Damon nodded. “Good. Stay with me and we’ll keep watch on Klaus. Stefan will take care of Elena. Caroline, do you want to make yourself useful for a change?”

Caroline hesitated before nodding.

“Then stick to Elijah like glue. Flirt with him, annoy him, bore him to death with your high school drama, I don’t care. But keep him occupied. I don’t want either of them to get another chance to kidnap Elena.”

“Right,” said Caroline. “We’ll make sure that everyone stays safe.”

She was being overoptimistic again. If it kept her happy, he’d play along. “As much as that’s possible with two Originals around, yes. Hope you’ve picked out your pretty dresses.”

That earned him an eye roll from both of them. Damon escorted them to the entrance, and leaned just inside the doorway as Bonnie fumbled for an umbrella. Caroline stretched a hand out into the rain and grimaced.

“I hope this clears up tonight.”

He watched them run to Caroline’s car and waited until it had driven off before going back inside the house. There he found Stefan waiting for him.

“I thought you were with Elena.”

Stefan shrugged. “She wanted to spend some time with her family. I said I’d pick her up before the ball. What did Bonnie want?”

Damon collapsed into an armchair and gave his brother a sideways look.  
“Eavesdropping, were you?”

“Well, you wouldn’t be planning anything behind our backs, would you?”

He raised his hands. “You heard. Nothing sinister going on here.”

“You do know that Bonnie can’t take out Klaus by herself, right?”

“Sure she can.”

“Elena asked us to make sure that nobody gets hurt–”

He felt a stab of annoyance. “What makes you think that I care what Elena wants?”

“Because you love her,” said Stefan steadily. “And if you love her, then you won’t let her friends get hurt.”

“No, I won’t let Elena get hurt. Which means keeping her away from Klaus.”

“She’s already decided that she’s going to go to him.”

The way his brother just rolled over and accepted Elena’s decisions infuriated him. “So? Are you going to stand there and watch while she does?”

“I don’t have a choice!” said Stefan. “I don’t want this any more than you. I’ll protect her for as long as I can. That’s all I can do.”

Damon stood up. Suddenly he couldn’t stand to be here any longer. “You do that, brother. I’m out of here.”

*

  
Elijah arrived at the Gilberts’ to find the Martins already there. They emerged from the house, Elena behind them.

“Good timing,” Jonas greeted him. “You can check that our spell worked.”

Elijah raised an eyebrow. “What did you do?”

“Rescinded all previous invitations. Go on. See if you can get inside.”

Jonas and Luka stood aside while Elena waited inside the entrance, watching them curiously. The door was open; light streamed through on to the porch. He’d gotten himself invited in to this house early on, courtesy of Jenna. When Elijah stepped forward, however, he met an invisible barrier.

“It worked,” he said.

“So that’s it?” Elena asked. “No vampires can get inside?”

“Not unless you invite them in,” Jonas answered.

“Be careful about that,” Luka added. “This spell is one time only. Any vampire you invite in after this, stays invited. So make sure that you don’t regret it. You want your house to be a safe space, for all your family.”

Elena glanced at him, and Elijah met her eyes, a flicker of understanding passing between them. If she didn’t want to invite him in, she didn’t have to. Certainly the Martins had refused to even give him their permanent address, let alone invite him into their home. Witches tended to be warier than most about that.

Elena nodded, looking back at Luka and Jonas. “Thank you. I really appreciate this. I know you took a risk coming back here.”

“It’s no problem.” Luka smiled at her. Jonas didn’t say a word; he placed a hand on his son’s shoulder, gave Elijah a nod goodbye, and turned away.

Once they had gone, Elijah leaned against the doorway, looking across at Elena who though only inches away was now out of his reach.

“You wanted to see me?”

She folded her arms, taking a breath. “Yes. Come in.”

No tricks this time. Elena had invited him in freely, and Elijah couldn’t help but smile at her when he stepped over the threshold. She looked serious, however, as she glanced back inside the house. He could hear Jenna and Jeremy in the living room, clearing up the candles, but Elena shook her head at him, pressing a finger to her lips, and gestured for him to follow her upstairs.

She led him into her bedroom.

“Are you sure you only wanted to talk?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow at her as she closed the door behind them.

Elena nodded, biting her lip. “This has to be between us.”

She walked over to her dresser, which was a mess of make-up, perfumes, nail polish and other items – he supposed that he had interrupted her in the middle of getting ready. She started to tidy up, not meeting his eyes even when he looked at her through the mirror.

“Stefan and Damon are coming with me,” she began. “Bonnie and Caroline are going to be there too. They all think they’re protecting me, but... I have to do something to protect them.” She turned to look at him. “And to protect you.”

He was surprised. Elijah wasn’t very often surprised, but Elena seemed to manage it on a regular basis.

“Protect me?”

She approached him, her voice low, her eyes lit up with determination. “I can’t risk him putting a dagger in you, or hurting anyone else.”

He kept his expression carefully controlled, remembering that his focus was not and should not be Elena Gilbert, as fearless as she was, as beautiful, as indomitable. She stirred feelings that he had repressed for centuries, and that thought was exhilarating, but he could not, must not, show it. Not as long as Klaus was alive.

“And how are you going to do that?” he asked.

“What’s the one thing that Klaus needs, more than anything else? Me. Without me, he can’t break the curse. He can’t risk losing me and we can use that against him. When you meet him, tell him that you’ve compelled me to kill myself if he kills any of my friends – including you.”

He paused. It was a good idea, but it had a flaw. “Klaus won’t take my word for it–”

“I know,” she said, interrupting him, and he realized that she had already thought of this. “That’s why... you need to compel me for real. Then if Klaus compels me, he’ll know it’s true.”

Elijah caught his breath. So that was why she had wanted him here in person. It was incredibly brave of her – but this was the Elena he had grown to know and admire, the girl who would do anything for her loved ones. At first he had simply exploited her suicidal tendencies for his own ends. She had agreed to that, agreed to his deal even knowing that she would die. Now she was asking him to use her life as a bargaining chip of her own accord.

“Is that what you want?”

She nodded firmly. “That’s what I want.”

He watched in silence as Elena took a deep breath and unclasped her necklace, setting it down on the dresser before walking back to face him. It wasn’t perfect trust; a tremor ran through her body, and he could hear her heart racing. But she didn’t shy away.

“Klaus mustn’t know that you asked for this,” he murmured. “He cannot know that we are on the same side.”

“I know.”

She said it without blinking, her eyes locked on his, and Elijah leaned forward to compel her.

*

  
Going to Alaric’s apartment seemed like the best option to avoid both Stefan and Elena. Damon was pissed in every sense of the word, and he couldn’t bear to spend another second in the boarding house listening to his brother trying to reason with him. Screw reason. Screw the whole damn world.

He walked in without knocking and found Alaric in a pitiable state: slouching in front of the TV in only his boxers and a dirty grey T-shirt, several empty bottles of beer teetering on the arm of the couch and a half-finished pizza slowly crusting on the coffee table. He hadn’t even bothered to turn the light on. Damon could see just fine, but Alaric jumped and went straight for one of the beer bottles, brandishing it like a stake.

Damon flicked the light switch on. “Relax, brother. It’s me.”

Alaric blinked, shielding his eyes. “Damon? Jesus, have you ever heard of knocking? What are you doing here?”

“I’ve come to crash your pity party, Ric,” Damon said breezily. “That is what this is, isn’t it?”

He walked over to the kitchen area and started opening the cupboards. Alaric sank back into the couch and groaned.

“Just because I’ve invited you in doesn’t mean you can walk in whenever you want.”

“Of course it does. Where’s your alcohol?”

Ric made a vague gesture that wasn’t helpful at all, but luckily Damon found his drinks a moment later. Good. Alaric was as stocked up as he was. He picked out the strongest bottle of whiskey, grabbed a couple of glasses and joined Alaric on the couch.

Alaric stared at him blearily. “So... what are you doing here again?”

“I need to get drunk,” said Damon. “Really drunk. It’s no fun doing it alone.”

“Point.” Alaric sighed, and allowed Damon to fill up his glass. “Lemme guess. The brothers Original.”

Even hearing the word made his throat close up, incensing him almost too much to speak. “Tell me you’re sane, Ric,” he managed at last. “You think all this is crazy, don’t you?”

“I think Elena is crazy for waking up Elijah, yeah, but I also think she’s desperate. She knows she’s running out of time with Klaus here. Desperation makes you do crazy things.”

Damon considered that, but it didn’t improve his mood. He shook his head. “You know what, I don’t want to talk about it. What’s up with you, Ric? What’s your pity party about?”

“Oh, you know. Jenna. Isobel. Mostly Jenna.”

“Oh yeah, you two officially broke up, huh?” Damon took a swig of his drink. “Me too.”

“What?”

“I broke up with my girlfriend.”

Alaric sat up a little, raising an eyebrow. “Andie? You mean your fake, compelled girlfriend? The one you compelled?”

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, the girlfriend I compelled. Bonnie and Caroline had a little problem with that part.”

“Say again?”

“They tag-teamed me. And not in the fun way. Bonnie did the whole witchy ‘do as I say or I’ll make you burst into flames’ thing, and then Caroline dosed Andie up on vervain.”

Alaric laughed, which annoyed Damon more than he liked to admit. “And you did what she said? That’s a first. Remind me to give them extra credit.”

“Shut up, Ric. The truth is...” He drained his glass and turned his eyes on Alaric. “The truth is, if I didn’t break up with her, I’d probably have killed her by now. See, I’m restraining myself.”

“Am I supposed to congratulate you for that?”

“No. No, you’re supposed to distract me. What I really want to do is find an innocent girl and suck her dry. Without Andie, I don’t have a distraction. Do you see what I’m saying here?”

Alaric was starting to look worried. “Not really.”

Damon paused. Alaric’s throat looked very attractive. But he was probably full of vervain. “I’m saying that I need another drink.”

He grabbed the whiskey bottle again and topped up his glass. Alaric watched him. It didn’t take him long to finish.

“Are you going to this party?” Damon asked presently.

Alaric sighed. “No. Elena begged me not to.”

“You do what she says too, huh?”

“I’m a vampire hunter, and Klaus is invincible. I think I’ll pick my battles.”

Damon laughed. “Right.”

They sat in companionable silence for some time. Alaric started flicking through the TV channels while Damon made a face at all the shows flashing by.

“Jesus, pick a channel, Ric,” he said eventually, snatching the remote away. Alaric didn’t even protest; he simply flopped back down and looked at him.

Damon met his gaze. “You know,” he said, “if I die tonight–”

Alaric nearly choked on his drink. “Whoa, stop right there. I am not ready for the heavy stuff.”

“If I bite it,” Damon went on, determined to finish now that he had started, “and if Stefan bites it, I want you to take care of Elena.”

He was staring at Alaric intently, almost as if he was compelling him, and Alaric stared back.

“Promise me,” said Damon.

Alaric swallowed. “Okay. I promise.”

*

  
Klaus was exactly where he’d said he would be. He was leaning beneath the awning of the Grill with his arms folded, wearing that smirk that Elijah knew so well.

Elijah walked up and stopped a few feet away from him, tucking his hands into the pockets of his coat.

“Niklaus,” he said, the name sounding heavy on his tongue.

Klaus gestured him inside with a smile. “Elijah. Shall we have a drink together?”

Once seated, Elijah removed his coat, taking his time about it. Klaus leaned back in his chair, watching him.

“It’s been a long time,” Klaus said, and Elijah could hear the regret in his voice.

He felt it too, despite himself. Regret that they were facing each other as enemies, not as brothers, that they had come to this place to exchange silky gibes and veiled threats, and that the trust between them, once so strong, had been forever broken.

He had once vowed to stay loyal to Klaus forever. Elijah did not break his promises lightly.

“Why did you wish to talk to me?” he asked.

Klaus smiled. “Straight down to business.” He shifted in his seat. “Well, first of all, I wanted to thank you. I hear you’ve been taking care of my doppelgänger.”

“I have.”

“This girl, Elena. How much time have you spent with her?”

“Enough to ensure that she will go to you willingly. She won’t run like Katerina.”

“That’s good to know. As I recall, you developed a bit of a soft spot for Katerina. We wouldn’t want history to repeat itself.”

“No,” Elijah agreed. That much he could agree on.

“And there’s the other thing I wanted to thank you for. Katerina, found at last. Two doppelgängers, one stone.”

Elijah got the joke, but didn’t acknowledge it. “I told you that I would find her.”

“Took your time about it, didn’t you?”

He smiled. “Still, I kept my word. I’ve been gathering everything you need for the sacrifice. I hoped that would make up for my... failure, the last time.”

“Did you?” Klaus leaned forward, his eyes gleaming. “See, I would like to believe that. But last time you proved yourself to be untrustworthy. Why should I believe that you won’t screw this up?”

Elijah paused. “Because you’re the only family I have left,” he said eventually.

“I’m not sure that’s good enough. In fact,” Klaus went on, “I’m not sure that I can afford to take any chances. Especially not with you.”

“Nor I with you,” Elijah answered smoothly. “Which is why I took the precaution of a little insurance policy.”

Klaus paused. “A what?”

“Elena. She and I have a deal. She’s willing to be sacrificed, as long as her loved ones are kept safe.”

“And this pertains to you and me how?”

“If you kill any of them, or kill me, she’s compelled to kill herself.”

He saw the rage on his brother’s face for a split second – Elijah had surprised him. It soon disappeared, replaced by a slow smile.

“I assume that means you’ll be sticking around.”

“I gave my word.”

“To Elena? That wasn’t really necessary, was it? Almost sounds like you care about her.”

Klaus’s tone was casual, but it was a pointed question, and both of them knew it, especially after the remark about Katerina.

He shook his head. “I ensured her compliance, nothing more.”

Klaus was watching him carefully; Elijah knew he would be analysing every word. His brother’s temper could change in an instant. Finally, he nodded. “Good. You know how long I’ve waited to break this curse, Elijah. I won’t allow anything to go wrong.”

Klaus held his gaze, his eyes narrowing just a fraction. Elijah nodded back, understanding.

“Nor will I.”

Klaus smiled. “I’ve missed these conversations of ours. And you’re right; it’s only the two of us now. Just like old times. Will you help me break the curse, brother? Will you let bygones be bygones, and pledge your loyalty to me again?”

It was an offer that sounded sincere. Klaus’s eyes – his brother’s baby blue eyes, as he had often thought during their childhood – were alight with passion; it reminded Elijah why he had stayed by his side for all those years. All of Elijah’s instincts to protect, to guide, and to care for: his brother brought out every one.

And yet even as he spoke they both knew that Klaus had conspired to kill him. If Elena had not resurrected him, he would still have Klaus’s dagger in his chest, and for all his pretty words he did not think that his brother would pull it out.

“Will you?” he countered.

“That depends on you,” said Klaus softly. “We’ll see. But we can make a start. Tonight, I want you to bring Elena to me.”

Elijah nodded. “Consider it done.”

His brother stood up, glancing at his watch, and Elijah followed suit.

“Well, I’d better dash.” Klaus grinned at him. “I need to get dressed for the ball. See you there.”

He shrugged on his jacket and walked off, Elijah’s eyes on him every second of the way. Then he sighed. This would not be the end of his brother’s games, he was sure. His loyalty would be sorely tested tonight.


	25. The Dance

Elena held Stefan’s hand tightly as she walked through the Lockwood grounds. She had Damon’s description of Klaus in her head – he’d failed to come up with a picture – and she kept looking around, her heart leaping every time she saw an unfamiliar blond head.

Damon flanked her on her other side, also looking for Klaus. When they reached the crowd inside, he nodded at them.

“Stay together.”

He walked off, and Elena heaved a sigh. “Somehow these parties just aren’t fun anymore.”

“We only have to get through tonight,” Stefan reassured her. “If we stay where it’s crowded, it’ll be harder for him to get to you unnoticed.”

She nodded. They were in the main ballroom now. The champagne was flowing, waiters moved around serving cocktails and canapés, and a group of violinists were playing classical music. No one was dancing yet, but she knew the drinks would loosen everyone up.

“Do you think Elijah’s here?” she asked, scanning the room again.

“I don’t know. Maybe he’ll turn up with his brother.”

She picked up a cocktail, narrowly avoiding knocking one of the glasses over, and sighed. She was wearing white. The evening had barely started and Elena was already regretting her choice of dress. Stefan wrapped an arm around her waist while they watched the party going on around them. Now they only had to wait.

A few minutes later, Caroline appeared, leaning in to whisper to them.

“Bonnie and I have searched everywhere. No sign of any Originals.”

Elena nodded. “Thanks, Caroline.”

“You look gorgeous, by the way. That is a fabulous dress.”

She gave a tired smile. “Thank you. You look great too.”

It was Caroline’s way of trying to cheer her up, she knew. But that moment was short-lived. Elena’s gaze moved past her friend as she spotted a familiar figure entering the ballroom. Her mother, Isobel. Elena’s mouth turned dry. Wherever her mother was, Klaus was sure to follow.

Stefan’s hand tightened around her waist as Isobel approached them.

“Isobel,” he said coldly.

Isobel inclined her head at all of them, including Caroline, who looked surprised. Elena realized that Caroline hadn’t actually encountered Isobel before – at least not knowing that she was Elena’s mother. The three vampires sized each other up. Caroline clenched her fists and Stefan’s eyes were burning into Isobel’s, but her mother ignored them.

“I’m glad you showed up,” she said to Elena. “But you’d better watch your company. Klaus gets jealous.”

“If he has a problem with the company Elena keeps, he can tell us himself,” Stefan replied.

Isobel’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. She turned to Caroline. “Didn’t Klaus pay your mother a visit? How is she?”

Elena suppressed a gasp, looking quickly at Caroline. Her friend had turned white. She hoped desperately that Isobel was only trying to get a rise out of them.

“She’s fine,” said Caroline, her voice tight. “Not that it’s any of your business.”

Stefan stepped forward, and Elena almost shivered at the menace in his voice. “We know why you’re here. So why don’t you stop playing games and go back to your master before I rip your heart out.”

Isobel swallowed, her poise slipping for the first time. Finally, she looked at Elena, and Elena thought she could see tears shining in her birth mother’s eyes.

“I’m sorry for what Klaus is about to do to you,” Isobel said.

Her stomach dropped. Wordlessly, Elena watched Isobel turn and disappear into the crowd. Then she looked at Stefan and Caroline, seeing identical worried expressions on their faces. There was a pregnant pause before they all spoke at once.

“You shouldn’t–” Elena began.

Caroline made an ‘um’ sound that she couldn’t hear properly, but Stefan cut her off.

“We have to call this off,” he said.

“No!” Elena said. “No, you heard Isobel. He’s expecting me to be here. If he doesn’t get what he wants–”

“If he gets what he wants, you’ll be dead.” Stefan’s eyes were blazing. “I can’t... I can’t just stand by and let that happen.”

“Stefan, you know...” She dropped her voice, looking around. She couldn’t say anything about Bonnie, not when Isobel was probably listening somewhere nearby, and who knew if Klaus had other spies. “He’s not going to kill me tonight,” she said instead. “Don’t risk him hurting any of you.”

Next to her, Caroline bit her lip as she fished her phone out of her bag. Elena frowned at her. “What are you doing?”

“Calling my mom,” Caroline mumbled. She lifted the phone to her ear and raised her other hand at them. “’Scuse me.”

Elena nodded, understanding, and Caroline hurried off. They had to take every potential threat seriously. She sighed, brushing her hair out of her face. They weren’t prepared for this, not really. Even with her last minute effort to guarantee the lives of her friends there were still too many ways it could all go wrong. Klaus had arrived in town too early. They weren’t ready.

Stefan was pleading with her. “We can hide you, we can protect you. You don’t have to go through with this.”

She shook her head. “I’m not leaving.”

She couldn’t run like Katherine. Elena knew that. So Stefan stayed with her, and in the meantime the party continued. She wandered around the mansion hand-in-hand with Stefan, both of them tense and vigilant, and she felt entirely cut off from the people enjoying the evening around her. She saw Matt dancing with a girl she didn’t know. A few minutes later, Damon and Bonnie came up to them with grim faces to report that there was no news. Caroline texted her to say that her mom was fine, which eased her anxiety a little – but only a little. Everywhere she turned she expected Klaus to appear, and her nerves were fraying into pieces.

Elena finished off her fourth drink and wiped her mouth. Suddenly she felt suffocated, oppressed by this awful crowd.

“I need to go to the bathroom.”

Stefan nodded. “I’ll wait outside.”

Alone at last – though she checked all the stalls just in case Klaus might be lurking there like the bogeyman waiting to jump out – Elena gripped the sink with both hands and stared into the mirror. All of her carefully applied make-up disguised the worry lines on her face. She’d curled her hair and chosen high heeled shoes; her dress flowed down to her calves, as light and fragile as she currently felt.

Everyone here was looking out for her.

She hated being this horribly important. She didn’t deserve it. All she had done was wear another woman’s face.

She looked like Katherine.

It all came back to that. She looked in the mirror and saw Katherine’s face – the smoky make-up, the curls – they only added to the effect. There had been another girl too, long, long ago. A girl she didn’t even know, but Elena wore a face that had been twice handed down.

She was a copy, a tool. That had been her reality ever since she had first heard the word doppelgänger, ever since she had seen that picture of Katherine. All these vampires who wanted a piece of her. She only had so much to give.

Her chest felt tight. She took long deep breaths, her knuckles turning white as they gripped the basin, and when she felt calm enough, she washed her hands, lifted her chin, and walked back out to face the music.

*

  
“Where is he?” said Bonnie.

“I don’t know.” Damon sounded as exasperated as she felt.

“Do you think he was tricking us? Maybe he wanted to lure us here for some reason when really he’s somewhere else.”

She thought of Jenna and Jeremy, alone in the Gilbert house, and of her father – who knew nothing of vampires – and Caroline’s mother, whose home had been invaded by Klaus. They’d already had a scare from Isobel about that. Any of them were potential targets. Then there was Alaric too; he wasn’t at this party, though at least he had his ring.

“If he is, we’ll just have a few drinks and then go home,” said Damon. His gaze darkened as he spotted someone behind her. “Well, there’s one Original.”

Bonnie turned sharply to see Elijah walking up to them.

“Bonnie,” he greeted her. “I have news about your mother.”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

“She called. She’ll be in Mystic Falls by tomorrow.”

Bonnie was speechless. She could feel her heart racing in her chest. Her mother. Abigail Bennett. She had disappeared when Bonnie was only seven years old and her memories of her mother were hazy at best. She wasn’t even sure if her strongest memory of her mother was real or if it had been Grams. She remembered the two of them baking apple crumble together; the way her mother’s hands kneaded the mix, and the smell of the crumble – she remembered that vividly. It had been both sharp and soft: the tang of the apple, the warm smell of baking; it felt fresh and familiar at the same time. She didn’t know why that particular sense memory stood out so much. Her dad rarely spoke about her mom, but from what little he had said, Bonnie had gathered that her mother was not particularly a domestic woman. Baking didn’t seem to be her thing.

She supposed that spell-casting was, though she hadn’t known it then, and she had no memory of her mother ever doing anything that might be magic.

She didn’t really know her mother at all.

Bonnie blinked, her eyes wet, and realized that Damon was speaking.

“So, Elijah. Bonnie and I were just wondering why your brother is late. Isn’t he the guest of honour? Maybe you should be worried.”

Elijah smiled. “My brother will be here. When he arrives, I’d advise you to stay out of his way. And mine.”

“Duly noted,” said Damon.

“Enjoy your evening.”

Elijah walked off, Bonnie staring after him. “He found my mother. I can’t believe it...”

Damon finished off his drink. “I wouldn’t until she’s actually here. So, your mother’s a powerful witch, huh?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t know that she was a witch until after she left.”

When Grams had told her about her heritage, Bonnie had tried to think back, to remember something. Any incident that might have seemed normal at the time, but could have been a hint to the person her mother really was. But she hadn’t been able to think of anything.

Damon looked at her. “You don’t talk about your family much.”

“That’s because there’s only my dad. And I’ve been trying to keep him out of this.” She shook her head, putting her empty glass down when a waiter walked past with a tray. “That can wait until tomorrow. Elijah says that Klaus will be here. We’d better do the rounds again.”

*

  
Elena and Stefan returned to the main ballroom to find themselves forced to the edges: the room was now full of couples dancing. With the men all in suits and the women in gowns, it was quite impressive to watch, if only she could just relax.

Normally she’d cajole Stefan into dancing. She glanced over at him. He was frowning, eyes sweeping the room again. It was true that here by the buffet table was a better vantage point. Maybe they’d better not.

“See anyone different?” she asked.

“Not yet.”

She looked over to the ballroom entrance where people were filtering in and out, and her heart leapt. Elijah had arrived. His gaze swept over the crowd once, then his eyes found hers and he made his way over.

“Elena,” he said, holding out his hand, “may I have this dance?”

She blushed, startled, and glanced at Stefan again. But Elijah’s gaze was serious, and though Stefan didn’t look happy, he made no objection.

She nodded and took his hand. Elijah led her out to the dance floor, and Elena felt ridiculous at how much her heart was palpitating simply from holding his hand. Then Elijah slipped a hand around her waist, drawing her close, and she almost couldn’t breathe. She could just hear the music through the pounding in her ears. It was a slow, soft melody, the couples around them dancing a waltz, and Elena and Elijah fell into step with them.

She couldn’t take her eyes off his face.

“Elena,” he murmured. “Klaus is here.”

At once all her emotions turned into pure fear. She swallowed a gasp. “Where?”

“He’s watching us right now,” said Elijah, slowly turning them around. “To the left of the violinists. Next to the woman in the red dress.”

She held on to Elijah for dear life as he steered them through the dance. It was difficult to see past all the other couples dancing, but Elena craned her neck, glancing past the violinists – and there was a glimpse of red – and then–

She saw him only for a moment, but she thought that first moment would be forever burned into her memory. Klaus was smiling, and his eyes seemed to pierce straight through her. He was dressed much like the other men in a suit and tie; she wouldn’t have picked him out if not for the way he was looking at her.

Like she belonged to him.

Elena swallowed, and looked back up at Elijah. “What is he going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Elijah murmured.

She tried to control her breathing. She’d thought that she was ready to face him, yet she didn’t want Elijah to let her go. He was looking at her as intensely as he had been through the entire dance, and the force of it made her shiver, but she saw the moment that he retreated. His expression turned cold; the look in his eyes and the tilt of his head became purely predatory.

“I think it’s time that you and Klaus met.”

He twirled her around and then pulled her to him, his grip on her hand suddenly hard and unforgiving, and Elena understood but she still felt the sharp tug of fear shoot up her spine.

“No–” she said.

It was a half-hearted protest. Elijah pulled her away from the dance floor and Elena followed helplessly. He was taking her to Klaus.

She held on to Elijah’s arm when they stopped in front of Klaus, and tried to stay calm. She didn’t know where Stefan was. Part of her prayed that he wouldn’t try to get involved in this. It was ironic, she thought, that her life had turned into a tug of war between two vampire brothers, as if everything that had happened with Damon and Stefan had only been preparation for this moment: the Original brothers, come to claim their prize.

“Well, hello,” said Klaus, smiling. “You must be Elena.”

She pressed her lips together to stop her mouth from trembling.

“I believe you wanted to lay eyes on your doppelgänger, brother,” said Elijah. “Elena, please meet my brother, Klaus.”

“Good of you to introduce us, Elijah. I have been so looking forward to this.” He took her hand and kissed it, and Elena felt Elijah tense fractionally beside her. Klaus tilted his head. “What, nothing to say, sweetheart?”

“You’ve seen me,” she said. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Of course not. Lovely as you undoubtedly are, Elena, I didn’t intend to spend all night only watching you.” He glanced up, eyes meeting Elijah’s. “Brother, I suggest you make yourself scarce.”

 _Don’t let me go_ , Elena thought frantically. _Please._ She looked up at Elijah, her eyes begging him to stay, but he wouldn’t meet her gaze.

Without a word, he nodded, and then he slipped his arm out of hers and vanished into the crowd, leaving Elena standing there alone. It was gut-wrenching. She felt betrayed. She stared at Klaus, and when he smiled and offered her his hand Elena had no choice but to take it.

*

  
Damon pushed his way through the throng, Bonnie hurrying behind him. He’d spotted Klaus walking in a minute or so earlier and now they were trying to keep up without attracting unwanted attention. Unfortunately, he knew this wouldn’t be easy for him given that he and Klaus had already met.

“Damon.”

He turned. Bonnie had stopped, her expression anxious.

“What?” He gestured at her furiously. “We’re losing him!”

“I felt...” She lowered her voice as he stepped towards her. “There’s another witch here.”

“You mean me?”

They both looked up at the girl who had spoken. She was wearing a black sequinned party dress, and was arm-in-arm with a man also dressed all in black. Something about them felt familiar, but Damon couldn’t quite pin down what. If she was a witch though, he was in trouble.

“Who are you?” Bonnie asked.

“Greta,” she replied. “You must be Bonnie Bennett. And Damon Salvatore, of course.”

The moment she said that, he realized exactly who these people were. Liz had mentioned two witches that were working for Klaus. One was the African-American girl, Greta. And her silent companion matched the description she had given of the other man.

Two enemy witches, and he only had Bonnie. They had to get out of here.

Bonnie’s mouth opened in surprise, even as Damon tried to surreptitiously tug her away. “You’re working with Klaus?”

She shrugged. “You have your vampire, I have mine. Sorry, love, but mine’s better.”

He knew it was coming. Greta turned her gaze on him, and it wasn’t just a headache – it was blinding pain, worse than the migraines Bonnie gave him. He cried out, sinking down to the floor; he could barely think – his head was just noise –

He managed a gasp. “Bonnie, help!”

He heard Bonnie say, “Stop it!”

But whatever she was trying to do didn’t work; she was outnumbered and outflanked, and the pain in his head didn’t let up until finally he gave in and collapsed completely, blacking out.

*

  
Caroline wandered through the party feeling completely out of it. She was torn. Her mother was fine, or had been ten minutes ago when she’d called her, but Isobel’s words kept ringing through her ears. What if it was a threat that she intended to carry out later? If something happened to her mom while Caroline wasn’t there...

On the other hand, she was supposed to be distracting Elijah, and that meant staying here at the party. Elijah was at least pretending to be on their side, and if they believed Elena, he could be trusted. She didn’t know. All she knew was that he was terrifying, but he had saved her from Katherine once. Sort of. And he could have killed her mother too, but he hadn’t. Small mercies and all. So she didn’t really know if it was safe to leave him alone or not.

The decision was made for her when she bumped into him emerging from the ballroom into the main entrance hall.

“Hey,” she said. Then she wondered if she had been too informal. He was like vampire royalty. Would he expect her to curtsey or something?

He looked distracted too, like his thoughts were somewhere else completely, but the second he looked at her, she had his attention. At once she felt very small. Her heart leapt painfully.

“Are you looking for someone?” he asked.

“Actually, I was looking for you.”

A minute pause. “No.”

He said it like he expected her to get out of his way, just like that. When she didn’t, he turned away from her, but Caroline hurried after him.

“Hey, wait. I just want to talk. Aren’t you supposed to be on our side now?”

He looked sideways at her. “Here is not a good place to talk. If I were you, I would look for Stefan. Klaus had him removed from the ballroom.”

They had reached the bottom of the grand staircase. A few people were sitting on the steps, sharing cocktails. She stopped short, her heart fluttering. “What? Then – what happened to Elena?”

“Klaus has her.”

“No...”

Caroline looked around, distraught. Where were Bonnie and Damon? They were supposed to be making sure that Klaus didn’t get to Elena alone. Then she looked up, to the top of the staircase, and saw a woman looking down, watching them both.

Her eyes widened. “Isobel...”

No sooner than Caroline had uttered the word, she felt a rush of air beside her, and blinked to see Elijah beside Isobel at the top of the staircase. At once he clamped his hand over her mouth and forced her across the landing. It was all so quickly and silently done that no one else noticed – but Caroline did, and she rushed up the staircase after them as fast as she could.

She found them in one of the guest bedrooms. Seeing Isobel helpless before Elijah should have been a moment of triumph, but instead she only felt nervous. Was he going to kill her? Caroline closed the door behind her with a soft click. Elijah took no notice of her; Isobel had his full attention.

“Where’s Stefan?” Elijah asked.

“I put him in one of the rooms. He’s safe.”

“And Katerina?”

“She’s not here. Klaus ordered her to stay behind.”

“Where?”

Caroline watched in morbid fascination as Isobel mechanically recited the address for Elijah. Even vampires were powerless against Originals. Elijah finally ordered her to forget this encounter and leave, and Caroline stood aside as Isobel walked past in meek silence.

Caroline folded her arms. “You let her go?”

“Klaus will want her back.”

She frowned, but he offered no further explanation. “Why did you ask her about Katherine?”

“Because I’m going to pay her a visit.”

He started walking towards the door and Caroline plucked up the courage to get in his way. “Wait.”

He looked at her and she suddenly realized that they were alone. She gulped. It wasn’t a comforting thought.

“Take your friends home,” Elijah told her, not unkindly. “I’ll take care of Elena. Now if you’ll excuse me...”

He brushed past her, leaving Caroline confused and unsure what to do. Should she follow him? She turned around, biting her lip, but he had already vanished. No, he was right. She needed to find her friends. Stefan was here somewhere. She took a deep breath, steeling herself, before beginning her search of the rooms.

*

  
“You can’t kill me,” Katerina said. “Klaus won’t allow it. I’m working for him now.”

Of course that would be the first thing she said. Elijah had found her exactly where Isobel had said she would be, lounging in the living room of a very expensive and supposedly unoccupied house, looking bored out of her mind. That had changed the moment he appeared. She was looking at him with fear and mingled hope – as if she thought he might help her.

Elijah didn’t bother to respond. He caught her gaze, ensnaring her at once.

“Give me your phone.”

She frowned, confused, but did as he said. He didn’t explain himself. His intention was to get this over with as quickly as possible, because he was aware every second that he had left Elena with Klaus, and that thought disturbed him more than it should have.

“So what have you been doing for Klaus?” Elijah asked without much interest. Most of his attention was on Katerina’s phone.

“Wrong question. Why don’t you ask what he’s been doing to me?”

“Go on.” He flicked through her phonebook, scrolling down until he found the name that he wanted, and then copied the number to his own phone.

“He’s been torturing me all day.” There was a hint of desperation to her voice now. “And other things I can’t talk about. You don’t want me compelled by Klaus, do you?”

“It’s no more than you deserve.”

He glanced up for just a moment to see her reaction: she swallowed, holding back tears, and then her face hardened.

“Right,” she said. “After running away to escape being sacrificed by a deranged Original, I completely deserved to be hunted down for the next five hundred years by said Original and his lying, sanctimonious older brother. What was my crime? Trying to save my own life?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Sanctimonious, really? If that were so, I would kill you quickly, Katerina. As it is, I’m going to leave you in the capable hands of my brother.”

He handed back her phone with a smile, and Katerina shook her head. “Please–”

He leaned forward a fraction. “When Klaus’s compulsion breaks, you will return to me. Do you understand?”

“I understand.”

“You won’t remember that we had this encounter. Now return to whatever it is that you were doing.”

Katerina took a deep, shuddering breath, and turned away. Elijah didn’t wait to see what she’d do. He was already gone.

*

  
Klaus took Elena outside, to where a fresh breeze chilled her skin, and strings of lanterns threw long shadows across the lawns. Nearby, a fountain bubbled. She could see the nearest people over by the water – a couple talking to each other. Too far away to notice what was going on. Too far away to help.

“What do you want with me?”

He sat down on a low wall, patting the stone beside him until she sat down too. “I merely have a few questions, love.”

She said nothing. Refused to look at him.

“First of all, Elijah tells me that you don’t intend to run. Now why is that?”

“Because I know what will happen if I do,” she whispered.

He chuckled. “Ah, you got the life story from Katerina, did you?”

“I got enough.”

“Very wise.” He leaned towards her, brushing her curls away from her face, and Elena shuddered when she felt his breath at her ear. “This is a pretty thing.” His fingers snaked down to her collarbone before lifting up her necklace. He hissed when the locket touched his skin, burning him. “Vervain. I see. So I can’t compel you, unless of course I take it off...”

Her heart was thundering in her chest. Elena closed her eyes, wishing for a moment that he would compel her and make her forget, so that she wouldn’t have to remember whatever she was about to go through. He was still playing with the chain of her necklace, avoiding the locket. But he didn’t remove it.

His thumb and finger gripped her jaw, forcing her to look at him. “Don’t think I’m unaware of all the vampires here who would try to stop me,” Klaus whispered. “One word from me and they will all be dead.”

“One move like that from you,” she whispered back, “and I will kill myself. I’m coming to you willingly on one condition, Klaus. My friends and family won’t get hurt.”

“Oh, yes, I heard about that. Clever tactic, Elena. I doubt that you could do it, but points for trying.”

“You shouldn’t underestimate me. Your brother did, and it almost got him killed.”

He let her go and leaned back, curious. “I’m sensing a story here.”

Her jaw was aching where he had held it. She was fairly sure that his finger marks would leave bruises. But she looked at him, and kept her voice low and even, determined not to show any weakness.

“Elijah called my bluff when I threatened to kill myself too. Why don’t you ask him how that turned out?”

“I’ll be sure to.” He still looked delighted, eyes gleaming, and Elena was afraid that she’d impressed him. “Of course,” he went on, “I’m not my brother. I know Elijah. So restrained. Did he ever tell you our family history?”

She didn’t reply. Elijah had told her something of his history with Klaus, enough so that she understood about the curse and the sacrifice. He hadn’t gone back further than Katherine, and she hadn’t asked. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to know about the girl who came before both of them.

“I’ll take that as a no,” said Klaus, who was searching her face intently as though he might glean her thoughts. “Well, he wouldn’t. The girl whose face you wear, she was as beautiful as she was poisonous. She cursed me. She haunted Elijah.”

Elena remained tight-lipped, but she couldn’t help listening. She was drinking in every word.

“Her name was Tatia,” Klaus went on, almost dreamily. “We were close, she and I. She was from a neighbouring family, and she used to visit our father’s estate every week. Then she and Elijah met, and my brother fell for her almost instantly. He went about everything the proper way: he courted her, he sought her father’s approval, and when he proposed she accepted.”

Elena couldn’t have spoken even if she had wanted to. Klaus’s words resounded in her ears. Tatia. Hearing this girl’s name made her feel more real somehow: she had existed, she had a name, and she had walked through the world wearing Elena’s face.

And Elijah had been in love with her.

It twisted her heart, knowing that. The memories she stirred in Elijah must have been complicated, precious ones. As Stefan and Damon had seen Katherine in her, the Originals looked at her and saw Tatia. Their first impression was never of her. It was always of someone else – she was the copy, the doppelgänger.

Stefan and Damon had learned to see her in her own right. She thought that Elijah had too.

But while she was with Klaus, she was still only the doppelgänger. He was telling his story with an air of indulgence, as if reminiscing more to himself than to her.

“Unfortunately, they were never married. Before the wedding, a few things happened. We turned into vampires. I was cursed. That sort of thing. It’s a long story; I get bored of repeating it. Where was I? Yes – ever since then, I’ve been trying to break the curse. It’s been my one goal. Elijah knows that, meaning he knows how important you are, Elena.”

His voice dropped when he said her name, drawing it out. Elena shivered.

“He’d deny himself what he really wants in order to take care of you, to hand you over whole for the sacrifice...” Klaus leaned in again, and whispered: “Me, I’m much more of a ‘take what I want’ kind of guy.”

She saw the telltale veins darkening around his eyes, the scarlet flashing in his irises. She was too terrified to make a sound. No one was here to save her. Elena had been attacked by vampires before, had almost died several times before, and always there had either been someone there to save her or she had been able to defend herself. Tonight, she had nothing.

She expected him to lunge at her; every fibre of her being trembled in anticipation of an attack. But Klaus grinned, showing his fangs, and snaked an arm around her waist.

“Come here, sweetheart.”

She shook her head, finding her voice. “No – please–” Too late she tried to scrabble away from him; Klaus pulled her into his lap with no effort at all, and then she felt his mouth on her neck.

His fangs sank easily into her throat, and Elena whimpered with the pain of it. She wasn’t sure how much he drank. She only knew that he wasn’t going to drain her, not yet. She was trapped in his embrace, and he drew it out horribly, slowly, as if _savouring_ her. It was far worse than any violence. It was far too intimate. One of his hands slipped down her waist to toy with the fabric of her dress, and Elena tried to hold still, not to tremble, because any movement only made the pain worse. She submitted because there was nothing else she could do, and she understood with horrid certainty that this was only a precursor to the final act; that Klaus was showing her just how powerless she was.

She was not a person to him. She was a toy.

Her dress had ridden above her thighs, and Elena was trying to numb herself, to black it out so that she didn’t have to feel, when she felt Klaus’s lips leave her throat. She took a deep breath, like someone nearly drowned breaking the surface at last. The wound on her neck still hurt, but it was a dull, throbbing pain, not the terrible leeching of her blood being sucked away.

“Oh, here he is,” Klaus rasped. “You just can’t stay away, can you, brother?”

The word ‘brother’ reverberated through her veins, and Elena looked up as Klaus lifted her to her feet. Elijah. He was standing only a few feet away, regarding them both with distaste. Klaus had smoothed down her dress as he picked her up, as if to cover her modesty – as if he wasn’t the reason she was in such a mess – and to her shame, she felt her cheeks burn. She was bleeding, bruised; one of Klaus’s hands was tangled in her hair, the other wrapped around her waist.

Elijah saw it all and his face gave away nothing.

“I’m here to make sure you haven’t broken her,” he replied.

“Don’t be so uptight. Of course I haven’t. I’m merely _sampling_ her. A taster before the main course under the full moon...”

Elena shuddered, glancing up at Klaus. His lips were bloody as he grinned. He twisted Elena’s head, exposing the open wound on her neck to Elijah.

“Would you like a taste, brother?” Klaus whispered.


	26. Abigail

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this chapter weeks before we ever saw Bonnie's mother. The show beat me to it, but Abigail as I've written her here is an original character, and the only thing she has in common with her canon counterpart is her name.

He wanted to drink from her. Elijah had excellent control, but he was still a vampire, and with the bleeding Elena presented before him like a gift, it was impossible not to want her. He had never tasted her blood, which only made her more tempting. He had the perfect excuse to do so. Klaus had forced his hand; he had to at least play along until their opportunity came to finally kill him.

But it was still an excuse.

“Give her to me,” said Elijah, and whether the tone of his voice held some command that Klaus was used to obeying – once upon a time he had listened to his brother – or for some other reason, Klaus complied.

Silently, he passed Elena over, sitting back down on the stone wall to watch them. She was trembling violently, her eyes full of fear as she looked at Elijah; he had never seen her so shaken. If he hadn’t already wanted to kill his brother with a passion that had burned in him for centuries, this would certainly have been the tipping point.

Elijah bit into his wrist with clinical precision and watched Elena latch on to him for the second time. When he had last healed her, he had been in a poor state, newly woken and starving. Feeding her had been like inflicting another injury, though a minor one. This time he felt desire stirring in him at the way her mouth felt on his skin, the spill of her hair, the smell of her blood.

Elena looked up at him, her face white, her mouth a red smear, and though she had never more closely resembled the vampires she kept company with, there was still a very human defiance in her gaze, even at her most vulnerable. Again and again he found himself admiring her spirit. It would allow her to survive this.

His eyes met his brother’s. Klaus was smiling, still watching them. He knew exactly what had transpired.

“Looking forward to the sacrifice,” Klaus said.

Elijah lifted Elena’s arm and looped it over his shoulder, so that he could better support her. Then, with one final look at his brother, he turned away to take Elena home.

*

  
Caroline found them all in the same place: one of the upstairs guest bedrooms. It was like walking into the aftermath of a séance. Snuffed out candles were arranged in a rough circle in the middle of the room, a few of them still sending up thin trails of smoke. The furniture had been pushed aside to make room for the circle. The smell of burning wax, incense, and blood permeated the air.

Something witchy had been going on, and she didn’t know what. Caroline held her breath as she stepped inside.

Bonnie, Stefan, and Damon lay sprawled inside the circle, none of them moving. She hurried over to check their pulses and was relieved to find that they were all alive. Or dead-alive, in the Salvatores’ case. Caroline bit her lip as she looked around again and noticed a small glass jar next to Stefan. The jar was dirty, the glass smeared with something dark, like jam. Only not jam. It was blood. Not human, she would know that at once. She breathed in, nose wrinkling. Vampire blood.

Had they been draining Stefan’s blood?

Officially creeped out now, Caroline hurried over to Bonnie, hauling her up first. She would have to take them one by one back to her car.

That was when she noticed the rings. She had slung Bonnie’s arm over her shoulder so that it hung limply in front of her. On Bonnie’s middle finger, there was a ring, one that she definitely hadn’t been wearing before because Caroline would have noticed and pointed out how horribly it clashed with her dress.

Her eyes went straight to Stefan and Damon, and her stomach dropped. They were wearing identical rings too: slim silver bands, each set with a ruby.

That probably wasn’t good.

*

  
Elena was wide awake and her entire body felt cold. She’d kicked her shoes off, and she stared down at her bare feet pressing into the bedroom carpet without feeling them. Elijah had taken her back to her room without disturbing her family. He found a dressing gown in her wardrobe and walked over to drape it around her.

Elena looked up at him. “It’s a little too late to be taking care of me.”

He said nothing, his hand lingering for just a fraction of a second on her shoulder before he straightened up and turned away.

“That’s not what this is,” he said, without looking at her.

She felt the beginnings of anger blazing within her. “Then what is it?”

He turned back, and his voice was cold. “Protecting an asset. Klaus cannot suspect that we are allies. You know that.”

She knew. She also knew that she had gone to the Lockwood ball of her own volition, aware of what she might face.

“What about protecting everyone else?” she asked. “Stefan, Damon, Bonnie, Caroline. What happened to them?”

She’d taken measures to safeguard the lives of her friends, but that didn’t mean that Klaus couldn’t hurt them.

“Your friend, Caroline. She found them all safe.”

Elena let out a breath. “So it was just me he wanted. He got them out of the way so that he could have me all to himself.”

She felt sick again just thinking about it. Why was he tormenting her like this?

“Yes,” Elijah said. He paused, expression uncharacteristically hesitant. When he spoke, he was so quiet that she almost couldn’t hear him. “Was I too late?”

She shook her head, wrapping her dressing gown more tightly around her. “He bit me, but...”

She trailed off, unable to finish. Elijah was watching her, and Elena met his eyes as he swallowed.

“I’m sorry.”

She knew that he wouldn’t say that unless he meant it. He had given her over to Klaus like she was a mere bargaining chip in their murderous game – and would have to keep up this pretence, she realized, right until the moment he killed his brother.

She looked up at him. Her anger had faded, replaced by a fatigue that seemed to seep through her every limb.

“I guess I know what to expect now,” she whispered. “At the sacrifice. How it’s going to feel...”

“The sacrifice won’t get that far,” he told her calmly.

“If we can find the witches. If not...”

“Either way, it won’t be long now.”

“When you kill him,” Elena whispered, “I want you to make him suffer.”

Elijah’s face was a mask of certainty. “I will.”

She nodded, and then wiped her eyes, sniffing. Outside, the night was black, and her eyes were itching with tiredness. She leaned over and pulled back the bed covers, unable to muster up the energy to stand up and do so.

Then she looked at Elijah again.

“He... said some things.”

She knew she was being vague, but she didn’t know if she really wanted to talk about it. Not like this. Everything Klaus had told her she had yet to come to terms with – she didn’t even know if it was true.

A frown creased Elijah’s brow. “What things?”

“About your history,” she mumbled. “About Tatia.”

She heard his breath catch. When he spoke, his voice was perfectly cold. “I see.”

“You never said anything.”

“You never asked.”

“If I do, will you tell me?”

There was a pause. “Yes,” he answered finally.

“Thank you,” she said. “Maybe – maybe tomorrow.” She stifled a yawn, lying back to pass her hand over her eyes.

“Tomorrow,” she heard him agree.

When she opened her eyes again, he had gone.

*

  
The good thing about Caroline staying at Bonnie’s house was that Bonnie didn’t have to call her in order to talk about anything. Instead, she woke up to find Caroline’s worried face an inch from hers. She groaned. It felt like she had a hangover.

If only she had a hangover.

A few minutes later, Bonnie sat cross-legged on her bed, frowning at the ruby ring on her finger.

“It won’t come off,” she said. “I’ve tried. Did you say Stefan and Damon have them too?”

Caroline nodded, biting her lip as she watched Bonnie tug at the ring again. Bonnie could sense what Caroline couldn’t, though it wasn’t exactly hard to guess: the ring was enchanted. It didn’t feel like it was digging into her flesh, but the moment she tried to slip it off, it was as though the metal band was part of her; it simply wouldn’t come off.

“Let me try,” Caroline offered.

“It won’t work,” Bonnie said, but she let Caroline shuffle forward on the bed and take her hand anyway. It would be easier to convince her that nothing could be done if she tried and failed herself.

“Ow!”

Caroline dropped her hand. “Sorry.”

“You nearly took my fingers off.” Bonnie massaged her fingers, wincing. “Even vampire strength isn’t going to help. This ring, it’s – it’s welded on. With magic.”

Caroline’s brow furrowed. “Do you know who did it?”

“Greta Martin. Damon and I ran into her last night.”

She explained what had happened.

“This is bad,” said Caroline, which pretty much summed it up. She reached out to take hold of the ring again, running her fingers over the silver metal. “What does it do? I mean, it can’t just be a decoration, can it?”

Bonnie shook her head. “I wish I knew.”

Maybe there was some way she could figure out the nature of the spell, but she didn’t know how. And she had even less idea how to undo it. She could think of several possibilities for the rings’ purpose, none of which were pleasant.

She frowned, adding, “I don’t feel any different. Did you tell Stefan and Damon about this before you left them at the boarding house?”

Caroline shook her head. “They were out cold. But I left them a note.”

*

  
“Found you two with Bonnie in the Lockwood mansion,” Damon read. “You were in some creepy witch blood ritual. Check out your new rings, Bonnie has one too. I’m staying with her to try and figure it out. Caroline. Kiss kiss. Look at that, she left a kiss for each of us – isn’t that sweet?”

He crumpled the note in his hand and glanced up at Stefan, who didn’t even crack a smile. Granted, they’d had a bad night. But Stefan had called Elena, so he knew she was safe, and no one was dead. It could have been worse.

“Bonnie might know something,” said Stefan. “I’ll call her.”

“Mmm.” Damon sank down into an armchair and tugged at the ring again. Nope. Not coming off. “You know, before we do, there’s an obvious solution to this so I’m just going to get it out there now: finger chopping. It’s one digit, it’ll grow back... what’s to lose? No pun intended.”

“You think that’ll work?”

Damon shrugged. “It’s worth a try.”

He’d recognized the rings the moment he saw his. They were identical to the one Katherine had been wearing. If Klaus was up to something that involved all four of them, however, Damon had no idea what it could be. All he knew was that he wasn’t going to play along.

There were several sharp knives in the kitchen. Damon looked at his hand again, grimaced, and stood up.

*

  
“I’m fine,” Elena insisted. It had barely been an hour since she’d dragged herself out of bed, and she already felt like a broken record.

Jeremy raised an eyebrow. “You know I can tell when you don’t mean that, right?”

She leaned back into the couch and huffed. “He didn’t hurt me, okay? He was just blabbering on about his family history.”

Jenna came in to give her a mug of hot chocolate, which Elena accepted gratefully, scooting over to make room for her on the couch. It also meant that she could avoid Jeremy’s eyes, because she really didn’t want him to press her about this. She’d lied to him – lied to everyone, even Stefan. If they knew what had really happened, they’d all make a fuss, and Elena didn’t want that. There were more important things at stake.

“So what did he say?” Jenna asked, settling down beside her. Her aunt’s gaze was sharp. Elena tried not to stumble over her words.

“He was talking about the first girl, the one who cursed him. The one who looked like me.”

“So who was she?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. Someone important to the Originals, I guess. But he told me her name. Tatia.”

She gave them a few more details, neglecting to mention anything to do with Elijah, and somewhere in the middle of it she was struck by immense relief that she was here, now: with her family, in her home, in the warm light of day. Jenna and Jeremy were both looking at her with such concern, such _love_. As a family, they had never been closer. She had to hold on to these moments. Elena still wasn’t sure that she’d make it beyond the next full moon.

She looked up. Someone had knocked at the door, interrupting them.

“I’ll get it,” said Elena quickly, thinking that it was probably Stefan.

It was Elijah.

She swallowed. “I didn’t expect you so soon.”

“I have something for you,” he said.

*

  
“He did what?”

“Chopped his finger off,” Stefan replied. “Didn’t work.”

Bonnie wasn’t sure whether to laugh or not. She controlled herself, speaking in a measured tone. “Well, I could have told him that.”

“Do you have any idea at all what’s going on here? What these rings do?”

“No. I’m sorry. I’ll call you if I think of something.”

“Okay.”

She ended the call, looking over at Caroline. They were getting ready to go over to Elena’s, since Bonnie figured that if she couldn’t do anything about Greta’s spell, she could at least be there for Elena. Caroline was standing in front of the mirror putting the finishing touches to her lip gloss, but Bonnie knew she had been listening.

“Wish I could have been there for that,” Caroline said, and Bonnie smiled at the glint in her eyes.

She tucked her phone into her bag and stood up. “You nearly ready?”

“Pretty much.” Caroline paused, her eyes flicking towards the door. “You have a visitor.”

“What?”

“Shh.” She tucked her hair back behind her ears, frowning as she listened to whatever was going on downstairs. Bonnie felt apprehension stirring in her body. “Oh my God... Bonnie... Is that – is that your mother?”

Her stomach dropped. “My...”

Elijah had told her to expect her mother’s arrival. With everything that had happened, she’d managed to bury the thought – she didn’t want to raise her hopes, didn’t want to believe that it might really happen...

The voices drifting up from downstairs were getting louder. She didn’t need to be a vampire to hear her dad shouting. Of course he wasn’t happy. And she hadn’t forewarned him, hadn’t told him anything – for him this was completely out of the blue.

Caroline saw the look on her face and said, “Okay, I’ll just... let myself out. You go and talk to her, Bonnie. Text me when you’re done.”

She nodded numbly.

Caroline squeezed her arm before disappearing, leaving Bonnie alone. She stood in the middle of her room, feeling like there wasn’t enough air. Everything seemed slightly blurred. It was surreal. How could something she’d been warned about come as such a complete surprise?

The answer came to her even as she took a breath and walked downstairs to face both her parents. It was because she hadn’t allowed herself to even accept the possibility.

She saw her dad first. “Ten years. You disappeared for ten years, and you never left a forwarding address. You have no right to be here.”

“I’m not here for you. I’m here for Bonnie.”

Bonnie stared. Her mother. Abigail Bennett was finally back. She had an impression of sleek, controlled grace, but from the way her mother’s lip curled and her eyes flashed, Bonnie thought there was a quick temper hiding beneath. Her mother’s hair was swept back into a stiff bob, not a hair out of place, and she was wearing a matching grey skirt and business jacket, with a high collared blouse underneath. A cream scarf was the only thing that softened her appearance, tied loosely over her collar.

She didn’t look like a mother. She didn’t look like a witch either. She looked like a successful thirty-something professional, out of place in the Bennett family kitchen, and Bonnie felt such a lack of connection with her that she almost cried right there and then.

She swallowed, unable to speak, but her presence didn’t go unnoticed. Abigail turned her head and saw her, and her dad followed suit.

Abigail stared at her, eyes bright.

“I’m here,” Bonnie managed.

“Bonnie,” she replied, offering a brief flicker of a smile. “Can we talk? Not here.”

“You have some nerve,” her dad growled. He walked over to Bonnie, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“It’s okay, Dad,” said Bonnie softly. “I – I want to talk to her. We can go out for coffee. Is that okay?”

It took some persuading, for her father was a stubborn man, but eventually he let her go, and Bonnie stepped forward to show her mother out of the house. Her heart was racing. She knew that they had a lot to talk about, but it was all business – all vampires and doppelgängers and curses. Would she be able to even try to form an actual connection with her mother? Did she want to?

She didn’t know.

*

  
Elena invited Elijah into the sitting room, where he handed her a piece of paper with a number written on it.

“What is this?” she asked.

“A way of contacting Lucy.”

He sat down, looking around at them all. Jeremy was watching Elijah with obvious suspicion. Meanwhile, Jenna was giving them the same look she used whenever Elena was with Damon, which was disconcerting.

“Lucy, as in the witch Lucy?” Elena asked, watching for his confirming nod. “This is her phone number? But why give it to me – why not Bonnie?”

After all, it was Bonnie who had met her, Bonnie who had spoken to her, Bonnie who was related to her. Elena didn’t even know what Lucy looked like.

“I suspect Bonnie may be preoccupied with another visitor.”

“Her mother,” Elena realized. She really needed to find the time to talk to Bonnie about it. Elena was the reason that Bonnie’s mother had returned to Mystic Falls – she felt responsible.

Jenna leaned forward. “Wait, what? Can you guys take a step back for a minute? What are we talking about?”

“The witches,” Elena answered. “We need at least seven to take down Klaus. We already have Bonnie, Jonas and Luka. Elijah brought back Bonnie’s mother, and we’re going to contact Lucy. That makes five, so we still have two more left to find.”

“One more,” Elijah corrected her. “I heard from the Martins shortly before arriving here. They’ve found a witch in Chicago willing to join us. They’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Right before the full moon,” Elena whispered. She’d been trying not to think about how close it was. The impending sacrifice...

Jeremy spoke up. “But that means there’s still one witch missing. And we don’t have much time left.”

Elena shared a look with Elijah. She didn’t really have an answer to that. Neither of them did. If they didn’t track down enough witches willing to help them in time, this entire plan was a waste. They would have to go with their back-up plan instead – Elijah’s original plan to let her die in the sacrifice.

Jenna bit her lip when neither of them responded. “So what happens if we don’t have enough witches?”

Elijah drew a breath, but Elena held up her hand, forestalling him. “Let’s just concentrate on what we have to do right now. I need to call Lucy.”

*

  
“Okay,” said Abby. “Start from the beginning. What have you gotten yourself into?”

They were in Bonnie’s car, her mother in the driver’s seat – she had said that she didn’t trust any public establishment. Anyone could hear them. Instead, Abby had taken them straight into the countryside, along a long, quiet highway. Bonnie wondered if she intended to keep driving right over the border.

They might have time for that too, she thought, as she began to explain. Her mother listened intently, interrupting several times to ask questions, and the further into her story Bonnie got, the harder her mother’s hands gripped the steering wheel.

“Does your grandmother know about this?” she asked at one point, and Bonnie realized with sudden horror that she didn’t know. Abby didn’t know that Grams was dead.

“Grams... Grams is gone,” she replied thickly.

She explained what had happened. “Oh,” Abby said. Her voice sounded small. For the first time, she looked lost – like her composure had gone and she was a young girl again. Their eyes met, both teary, and Bonnie felt just a glimpse of a connection, like a thread between them. Here was someone who shared her grief.

“I thought she was taking care of you,” said Abby. “She was always better at that than I was.” She shook her head, looking at the road again, and the thread disappeared. “You haven’t mentioned Klaus. How does he fit into this?”

By the time Bonnie had finished, the sun was hanging low over the horizon, creating an orange haze over the road ahead.

“Well,” said Abby finally. “That sounds like the Originals all right. Kidnapping and abusing innocent girls. You shouldn’t have gotten involved, especially not on your own.”

“I didn’t want to. But Elena is my best friend. I couldn’t walk away. And I didn’t have anyone else. I was the only one who could help.”

Her mother twisted her mouth, looking through the rear view mirror before pulling the car over to the side of the road. They had stopped on the verge; there was nothing around them except fields. Abby switched off the engine, then leaned back and looked at Bonnie. All tears had vanished; her eyes were as hard and sharp as flint.

“You can always walk away. Even if you think you can’t – don’t let yourself be beholden to anyone, Bonnie. People like us, other people always try to use. Don’t be fooled.”

Her words struck a chord with Bonnie, despite the way her heart recoiled. It was true. Grams had died because of it – because of the Salvatores. But Elena needed her.

“I’m not fooled,” she said quietly. “I know what I’m doing. And if we have the power to stop Klaus, then don’t we owe it to everyone – to the world – to do it?”

“With great power comes great responsibility?” Abby asked. “Only if you take on that burden.”

“What did you do?” Bonnie’s voice shook. All the questions she’d ever wanted to ask her mother tumbled out of her at once. “You left – you _abandoned_ us, ten years ago. What happened? Why did you never come back?”

Abby sighed, looking down. “It’s a long story. Maybe I sound bitter – I am bitter. The Originals have been playing a long game. Ten years ago, I got sucked in. Just like you have.”

Bonnie caught her breath. So her mother disappearing had something to do with the Originals. She should have guessed that the moment Elijah had said that he knew her.

“Long story short, Elijah was looking for someone,” Abby continued. “A vampire. And he thought that Klaus knew where this vampire was. So he came to me. I was... in some trouble at the time. Witch trouble. I’d played around with magic that was too powerful, attracted unwanted attention...”

“Did Grams know?”

She shook her head. “I was too proud – too stupid – to tell her. I didn’t even tell your father. Then Elijah came and solved all my problems. He does that. And all he wanted was a little favour...”

“So you owed him.”

“Big time. And I liked him at first, I’ll admit that. He’s an Original. Powerful. He promised to guarantee protection for us, if only I did what he wanted. But that didn’t work out. Klaus isn’t easy to fool. He found out that I was double crossing him. So I had to run – I couldn’t go back home. If Klaus found me there, he wouldn’t just kill me, he’d kill all of us. I thought that, without me, you would be okay. You had Grams. You had your dad.”

Bonnie blinked. Her eyes were wet with tears. Her mother had vanished to protect them. And all this time she had wondered why. Her dad claimed it was a messy divorce. Even as a ten-year old though, that hadn’t quite seemed right to Bonnie. What she hadn’t understood was why her mother had left her too. Did her mother hate her? What had she done?

“What about Elijah?” she managed. “Didn’t he say that he would protect us?”

Abby’s expression hardened. “No, he said that he would protect us, if I tracked down the vampire he wanted to find. I went back to him after I escaped from Klaus. He wouldn’t do a damn thing. He used me, and when I didn’t turn up the goods, he turned his back on me. That’s the kind of family you’re dealing with, Bonnie. We’re just pawns in their game, you understand? And your friend – Elena, the doppelgänger – she’s fooling herself if she thinks Elijah plays for any side but his own.” Abby sat up straighter in her seat, taking a breath. “I’ll help you to kill Klaus,” she said. “But I’ll do it to protect you, and because I want that bastard taken down. I don’t want _anything_ to do with Elijah.”

She stopped abruptly. Bonnie let out a breath; the silence felt thick, cloying. “Okay.” She knew that she should be glad for her mother’s help. But disappointment was building in her chest. Her mother had said nothing about staying, nothing about her.

Abby started the car again. They drove off, and her mother looked at her. “So. What do we need to do to kill Klaus?”


	27. To Die For

“This had better be a murder,” Damon said. “I’m a little busy right now.”

Liz frowned at him. “No murders. I’d say it’s just a council meeting, but look who turned up again.”

She jerked her head over to the cake stand, where Carol stood talking to someone very familiar. Damon groaned. Klaus. He was holding a tea cup and looking entirely at ease. What was it about Originals and getting cosy with the council?

“Damon, he was invited into my house,” Liz continued. “He’s a threat to the entire town and you’re telling me that a stake won’t work?”

“Not on an Original.”

He had filled Liz in. She had asked, and it seemed only fair. Katherine might be dangerous, but it would be far worse if Liz tried to go after Klaus with a stake. There was only one way that could end.

Liz’s hand was resting on her gun holster as she looked at Klaus, the very picture of suspicion. “This can’t go on. He’s compromising the council.”

Damon laid a hand on Liz’s shoulder to stop her from approaching him, but at that moment Klaus looked up and gave them both a dimpled smile. He ended the conversation with Carol, who looked positively smitten by him, and ambled over to them.

“Liz, Damon. Lovely to see you again.”

“You’re not welcome here, Klaus.” Liz’s face was hard.

Klaus’s smile widened. “Sorry, did I not make myself clear the last time we met? I have some business to attend to, so unless you want to die a violent and bloody death – I can be very creative – I suggest you go away and keep quiet. I’d like to talk to Damon alone.”

He turned his eyes on Damon, who was surprised, but not enough to pass up on the opportunity to talk to Klaus. If Klaus had wanted to kill him, he could have done so at the party. This might be a chance to get some information out of him.

So Damon looked at Liz and spoke gently. “I’ll be fine.”

Her mouth was a thin line, and the anxiety was clear to see in her eyes – fear, he realized, not just for herself and her family, but for him too. She left, and Damon watched her retreat before following Klaus. He didn’t do so without trepidation. The last time he’d had a quiet word with an Original, it had been Elijah, who had slammed him into a wall and stuck a pencil in his throat.

“You care about her, don’t you?” Klaus said, watching him.

Damon tore his gaze away and snorted. “The sheriff? No. You’re not the only one playing nice with the council.”

Klaus seemed to buy that, to Damon’s relief, since he was pretty sure that it was a bad idea to confess that he cared about anyone to the Original vampire. They found an empty study, Damon closing the door behind him. Klaus seemed in no hurry to talk; he meandered around the room, picking up a picture frame, an antique glass, a paperweight.

Damon held up his hand. The ring on his middle finger glinted in the dim light.

“Thanks for these. Very thoughtful.”

Klaus looked up and chuckled. “You’re welcome.”

“But I’m curious,” Damon went on. “What exactly are they for?”

He was being transparent, but there wasn’t much point in being subtle about it. He had no way to trick the information out of Klaus.

“Well, now, I’m glad you asked,” said Klaus. “I have a request for you, Damon. I’d like you to pass on a message to my brother, Elijah; I think you’ve met.”

“We’ve spoken.”

“I’m sure you got on famously.” He approached Damon, his eyes becoming serious. “Tell Elijah these rings are my little insurance policy, in case of attempted fratricide. Unfortunately it runs in the family.”

Damon gave a thin smile. “So I’ve heard. What kind of insurance?”

“Life insurance. You see, these rings are connected to my life force. Meaning, if I die, so do you, and your brother, and your witch.” Klaus took another step forward, his smile all teeth. “So go on. Take your best shot. But know that if I die, I’m taking you all with me.”

Damon had no response to that. His mind raced. Klaus had just undone everything that they had worked towards. If they were still wearing these rings tomorrow night, then he, Stefan, Bonnie and Katherine would all die the moment that Klaus bit it.

He didn’t imagine for a second that this would stop Elijah from going ahead with the plan, but if Elena found out...

“Give my love to Elijah,” Klaus finished. He patted Damon on the shoulder, then brushed past him and out of the room.

Well. Now they were truly screwed. If they were going to get out of this, they needed help. Damon sighed. It looked like he would have to call Bonnie again.

*

  
Caroline slurped from the blood bag, and then crumpled it up, a little embarrassed. It was bad table manners, but she hadn’t had any blood in a while. Bonnie didn’t keep it in the house. But she was in the Salvatore house right now, and Stefan hadn’t blinked an eye. She leaned back on the couch, watching him. He was on the phone to Elena, and she didn’t need to make an effort to hear their conversation.

“I’m surprised you haven’t come over,” Elena was saying. “You were practically babysitting me before; what’s keeping you?”

“Yeah, sorry. I’m taking care of Caroline; she needs another place to stay while Bonnie’s mom is in town.”

“Tell Caroline she’s welcome to crash here. We’ve had the house freshly de-invited, so no unwelcome vampires can get in.”

Caroline perked up at that. _De_ -invited? That was possible? She’d have to ask Elena about it. It really sucked not being able to go home. She’d worn all her clothes once already.

“Huh, then I’ll remember not to sneak in through the bedroom window again,” Stefan replied, a faint smile lighting up his features.

Elena laughed. “See you, Stefan.”

“See you.”

He ended the call and looked at Caroline, his brows immediately drawing together again.

“Wow,” said Caroline. “Is it just me, or is she deep in denial? Like, neck-deep.”

“She’s coping,” said Stefan.

“So are we going over? I was gonna give you a lift. Free of charge.”

That was why she had paid a visit. Well, that and nabbing a blood bag.

He smiled and shook his head. “Thanks, Caroline. But if I see her, she’ll see the ring. It’s a problem we haven’t figured out a solution to, so until we do that...”

She understood. He didn’t want to tell her. He didn’t want Elena to worry about them, and Caroline got that, but she also thought he was being stupid.

She shook her head at him. “You should tell her. She’s going to find out anyway, and when she does, she’ll be mad at you for keeping it from her.”

“I know... But she has enough to worry about already; I don’t want to make things worse.”

“We’re a day away from the sacrifice,” said Caroline bluntly. It was a fact that they had all shied away from – she didn’t want to think of it, none of them did. But there came a point when you had to talk about something. “How can things get any worse? Come on. I’m your friend and I’m Elena’s friend, and I want what’s best for both of you.”

She got up, held out her hand, and Stefan reluctantly took it.

*

  
Elena looped her hair back behind her ears. “There. It’s done. So we’re going to get a whole bunch of witches here tomorrow.”

She was sitting cross-legged on her bed, having finally managed to get through to Lucy. Elijah was gazing out of the window. Elena gave him a tired smile. She had invited him upstairs because she wanted to talk to him alone. Jenna had given her a very funny look about that. But she wanted to ask him about his family, and she had the feeling that he might not be quite so open in front of Jenna and Jeremy.

He stirred, blinking at her. “You should take the elixir tomorrow. Just in case.”

Just in case. They were still short a witch. Elena nodded, then swung her legs over the side of the bed and patted the space next to her.

“Can you tell me about her? Tatia?”

He accepted the silent invitation, coming over to sit down next to her, and Elena felt her heartbeat quicken. She didn’t know when she’d started looking at him like that. Started _noticing_ him – not only as the powerful Original, but...

His eyes met hers. “What would you like to know?”

She swallowed. “I – I thought I knew everything I needed to about the sacrifice. But I want to know what my place is in all of this. What’s so significant about the doppelgänger? Why her? Why me?”

Elijah considered for a moment before speaking. “It couldn’t have been anyone else. You see, it was only after we became vampires that we discovered that Klaus was also a werewolf. The witches had not intended to create a hybrid species.”

Elena blinked. “You were created by witches?”

“Yes,” Elijah replied. “We were created for one specific purpose: to hunt down the werewolves that plagued our land. Of course when it was discovered that Klaus was one of them, the witches perceived that his loyalties might be divided. So they decided to place the curse on Klaus, sealing away his werewolf side.”

“What about your family? Did you want Klaus’s werewolf side sealed away too?”

“Our opinions differed,” Elijah said carefully. “My father had discovered that my mother had been unfaithful. Our parents were divided; our entire family was. My mother sought to appease my father and the witches by agreeing to put the curse on Klaus.”

“So... how does Tatia come into it?”

“Tatia’s blood was required for the curse to work. She and my mother cut a deal; she would offer her blood, in exchange for our protection.”

“Protection? Why would she need protecting?”

Elijah looked at her directly then. “Because Tatia was also from a werewolf bloodline. The same bloodline as Klaus.”

Her mouth fell open. “They were _related_?”

“Yes. Half-brother and half-sister, to be precise. The witches needed a living blood relative in order to curse Klaus. Her blood did the trick.”

Her head was spinning. “Does that mean... _I’m_ from a werewolf bloodline?”

Elijah shook his head. “The werewolf curse is passed down through the men in the family. Tatia never triggered the curse. Her descendants were not werewolves, and neither are you.”

“But we’re genetically identical.”

She wasn’t entirely sure that genetics applied to matters of doppelgängers and werewolf curses, but she didn’t know how else to explain the fact that they looked alike.

“When Tatia volunteered for the sacrifice, her blood became something different, something unique... The doppelgängers are supernatural occurrences, Elena. You and Katerina are both tied to the curse, as Tatia was.”

So Tatia had been used to curse Klaus because she was related to him. A horrible possibility occurred to her. “Am I related to Klaus?”

Her skin crawled at the thought.

“Do you consider yourself related to Katerina?”

“I’m her descendant...”

“Katerina has a thousand descendants. I have more.”

“Wait,” she interrupted, “you had children?”

He was silent for a moment. “A long time ago. But it doesn’t matter. I don’t believe you are related to Klaus any more than Katerina was; you may be the doppelgänger, but you are your own person, Elena.”

Elena frowned. Once again, she had been given a revelation that raised a hundred questions.

“If Tatia was Klaus’s sister,” she said slowly, “why did she betray him?”

“Many reasons. To stop the war that had already begun between our families... to protect Niklaus... and to save herself.”

“But didn’t she die in the sacrifice?”

“No. The curse did not require Tatia to die. The witches made the sacrifice a requirement of her doppelgängers, but Tatia had to survive in order to have descendants.”

“So she escaped... and she lived long enough to have children.”

“Yes.”

“But not with you.”

His face darkened. “I was a vampire; it would not have been possible.”

“But you loved her. Klaus said that you were going to marry her.”

“Becoming a vampire made many things impossible. My future with Tatia was one of them.”

Elena thought that she could see the faintest hint of regret in his eyes, but something about his expression made her think that it was more the memory of regret. These were old feelings. Even so, she could tell that he wasn’t entirely comfortable discussing Tatia. His gaze had dropped; he was tracing patterns on the duvet in a way that gave her inappropriate thoughts about his fingers on her skin, but he had also turned slightly away from her.

She tried not to be distracted, changing the subject instead. “Did you know that she was Klaus’s sister?”

“Not until the truth came out. Klaus had known. He’d kept it a secret, even from me.”

“So what happened? What was your part in all this?”

He paused. “I wanted our family to make peace. It didn’t work. Everything that happened, I discovered too late... That my father had massacred Tatia’s family, that Tatia had made a deal with my mother...”

“Why did she go to your mother for protection? Why not to you?”

He shook his head. “She knew that Niklaus and I were close. Perhaps she didn’t think that I would have agreed to the curse.”

Elena shifted, frowning at him. “I don’t understand. She loved you. With everything that had happened, wouldn’t she have gone to you first?”

“I’m not sure that she did love me,” Elijah said quietly. “I learned many things about Tatia and my family in those few days that redefined the way we saw each other forever.”

For a moment, she didn’t know how to respond. It all sounded so... intense. She couldn’t imagine it, the shock of not only being turned into vampires, but discovering all these family secrets at the same time. And Tatia had been at the centre of it all.

“She doesn’t sound like a nice person.”

Maybe it was silly, but Elena’s stomach sank at the thought. Was she doomed to repeat the mistakes of her ancestors? And she felt sad for Elijah too, that he had loved a woman who hadn’t loved him back.

“She was a complicated person,” was all Elijah said.

They looked at each other for a long moment. He was close enough that she could see the tiniest shift in his expression, the way his mouth quirked up just slightly, the wistful look in his eyes. Her heart beat faster.

Then Jenna’s voice echoed up the stairs.

“Elena! Stefan’s here!”

Elena tore her eyes away and stood up quickly, letting out a breath. She had been so absorbed in talking to Elijah that she had almost forgotten Stefan was coming over.

“I’ll bring the elixir tomorrow,” Elijah told her.

She nodded, and touched his arm briefly in thanks before hurrying down the stairs, knowing that Elijah would have gone by the time Stefan came in.

*

  
“Three vampires at the door! Just waiting for an invitation.”

Caroline hadn’t changed, Jenna thought, when she’d recovered from being dazzled by the girl’s smile. For a vampire, she sure was... perky. Particularly in comparison to Stefan and Damon, who looked grim as hell.

Damon stared at the door frame as though it had personally insulted him. “Why can’t we get in?”

Jenna stood well back, feeling rather smug that she knew something that he didn’t. “We had the house protected. Meaning de-vampified, de-vamped, whatever. I’m not inviting any of you guys in, by the way. That’s a decision we make together as a family–”

She turned back when she heard Elena hurrying down the stairs, missing the annoyed expressions that no doubt accompanied Caroline and Damon’s huffs at not being let in.

“Hey,” said Elena. “Caroline, come in.”

This was interesting. Jenna stood back and watched, amused, as Caroline triumphantly entered first and hugged her friend. Damon scowled; Stefan remained patient.

Elena buried her head into Caroline’s shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“And you. We were all so worried…”

Elena stepped back, regarding Caroline with a concerned expression. “Is your mom okay? I can ask the Martins to protect your house too. Then Klaus won’t be able to get in and hurt you, or any other vampire.”

Caroline smiled, but before she could respond, Damon let out an impatient and none-too-subtle cough. Elena turned to the Salvatores, who were still trapped outside. Jenna shared a look with Caroline. Personally, she was rather enjoying the sight of them stuck out there, powerless for once.

Damon raised a hand. “Well?”

“If I let you in,” Elena began.

“Oh, please,” said Damon. “Are you going to force some kind of lame-ass promise out of us?”

“Elijah had the Martins seal this house so that my family would be safe,” Elena said quietly. “They haven’t always been safe with you around.”

Jenna frowned. What was she talking about? Damon looked... guilty. She didn’t think she’d ever seen that expression on his face before.

She glanced between them. “Am I missing something here?” But she might as well not have spoken; the pair of them only had eyes for each other.

Damon’s tone was serious. “I won’t hurt you, Elena. You, or anyone else you care about.”

Elena sighed. “I just don’t want either of you two messing this plan up, okay? We’re doing it my way.”

The brothers shared a look. Stefan cleared his throat. “Elena, there are some things we have to tell you. But I think it’s best to do it inside.”

Caroline tugged at Elena’s arm. “He’s right, Elena. Can you just let them in?”

Finally, Elena nodded. “Come in. Both of you.”

Jenna held the door open as both Salvatores immediately stepped over the threshold. Well, now their house was vampire central again. At least she hadn’t accidentally invited the wrong person in this time.

Stefan took Elena’s hand as Caroline waved them over into the living room. Damon strode after them, but Jenna stopped him with a hand on his arm. She paused as he turned to her and narrowed her eyes at him.

“So what was that about?”

“Nothing.”

She laughed. “Damon, in the last couple of weeks, I’ve found out that vampires exist, that Elena has a vampire doppelgänger and a vampire birth mother, and I killed an Original who wouldn’t stay dead. Not to mention all this crap with the curse and the full moon. I know when it’s not nothing. Elena’s wary with you – why?”

He sighed. “I may have... tried to turn Jeremy into a vampire.”

“What?”

“It was months ago! And he wanted it – he drank Anna’s blood, he even tried to commit suicide. I was just helping him along.” He held up his hands as she punched him in the shoulder. “Hey! I promise I have no intention of doing anything like that again. Jeremy got over his vampire-wannabe phase. And luckily for him, he has a magical ring that protects him from supernatural death, so. No harm done.”

“When this is all over,” Jenna said, “I am having serious words with you. With both of you.”

“I can’t wait.” He gave her a cold smile, gesturing her over to the living room. “After you. Can’t miss this conversation.”

*

  
“No,” Elena whispered. “No, this can’t be... no...”

The words died in her mouth like rotting leaves. She felt as though she had just been sentenced to an execution – except that she wasn’t the one who was going to die, half of her friends were.

Caroline bit her lip. “Don’t give up. It’s a spell, that’s all – and spells can be broken, right? Come on, we’ve got at least six witches on our side, surely one of them should be able to do something.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” said Damon. “You haven’t got a pretty death sentence on your finger.”

“She’s right,” said Stefan. “We go to Bonnie or any of the other witches – we don’t have to give up on the plan.”

He squeezed Elena’s hand, and she nodded, though she couldn’t look at him. Of course that was their only hope. They were betting on the witches’ magic... putting so much pressure on Bonnie to save them all.

She took a deep breath. “And if they can’t do anything?”

Stefan’s gaze was steady. “I’m prepared to die for you, Elena.”

That was the last thing she wanted to hear. She snatched her hand away and stood up, folding her arms as she turned away from him. “Well, I’m not prepared to let you do that. Don’t ever say that again.”

“There is another way,” said Damon.

She looked at him, half-hopeful, half-suspicious. Once again his eyes were serious.

“If we have to let Klaus get away with this,” he said, and he looked like he hated the thought, but he went on, “if we have to let the sacrifice happen, then you don’t have to die. If you took vampire blood–”

She shook her head. “No.”

Caroline looked up, and tried to protest: “But, Elena, that would–”

“No!” she snapped.

She couldn’t stand it. She was overwhelmed, once again, by a feeling of powerlessness. Loss of control. Her life in everyone else’s hands. Her friends’ lives in others’ hands. And she was grasping at straws; she had fought, manipulated, and negotiated her way through every terrible ordeal any vampire had ever thrown at her, and still, still, she could not prevent her loved ones being killed.

Why couldn’t she ever win, just once? Why did she always have to lose?

“Elena–”

Stefan stood up and reached out for her, but Elena shook her head blindly and rushed out, past Jenna who had been listening in shocked silence, and then past Jeremy who had just come downstairs. He called after her, but she didn’t hear; she stumbled into her bedroom and slammed the door shut behind her.

There she sank down to the floor, and tried to breathe.

No tears would come. She seemed to have skipped that step and gone straight to despair. The cold hard facts were these: they had one day left to de-spell the rings. One day to find the seventh witch. One day to assemble them all in time to kill Klaus before the sacrifice.

One day to live.

She fumbled with her phone, her fingers slipping on the keys, though she didn’t really have a clear idea in her head of who she was going to call – Bonnie? Elijah? But before she could do anything, there was a soft knock at the door, and then she heard someone come in.

She looked up. “Stefan.”

He knelt down beside her. “Elena...”

She said nothing. His hand on her shoulder felt cold, not comforting. His presence was a reminder of everything she had to lose.

“I had a word with Damon,” he said. “He’s not going to turn you. I know that you don’t want that.”

“Then you know that we don’t have a future together,” she said, and he sighed, looking down. “No, Stefan – I don’t know if I have a future at all. But look at what’s happened to you, all because you’re involved with me.” Her voice trembled, and a memory struck her, a horrible memory: Klaus’s soft voice, the way he had described her predecessor. “I’m poison, Stefan. I’m Tatia, I’m Katherine, I’m–”

“No,” he said. “You are not Katherine, Elena – you’re _nothing_ like her.”

“I’m the doppelgänger,” she said, “and you’re all falling over yourselves to protect me – as if my life is more important than anyone else’s, as if all the people who have died in Mystic Falls since this started aren’t just as important to someone else. You already died for Katherine. I’m not worth dying for too. I didn’t want to play with both of your feelings like she did; I didn’t want to get in the middle. I didn’t want to get involved with the Originals, with Elijah, but–”

He frowned. “Elena... What are you saying?”

She shrugged helplessly. “I’m saying... I think I feel something for him.”

That he clearly hadn’t expected. He stared at her, shocked. Elena didn’t know where all that had come from either, how it had ended with a confession like that. Feelings she’d barely even known that she had, feelings that she had never wanted to express...

She looked at him, tears forming in her eyes.

Stefan asked one question: “Why?”

She shook her head. “What does it matter?”

“What do you mean – of course it matters. It matters to me.” He leaned forward, shifting his hand to her arm, and his voice was urgent. “Elena, I love you. I’ve never loved anyone so much–”

Both of the Salvatore brothers had confessed that to her, even if she only remembered one of them doing so. She could only feel an awful sadness. She was going to cripple them, cripple both of them, because she was only seventeen years old and whether or not she lived past tomorrow, she didn’t know if she could be with them forever.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “But you’re better off without me.”

He stood up, regarding her silently for a moment. “I’m not giving up.”

She didn’t have the energy to reply. He retreated; Elena stayed where she was. A few minutes later Caroline came upstairs, hugged her, and proceeded to braid her hair like she used to when they were kids until Elena felt a little better. She promised that Bonnie was working on the rings. They had six witches. One of them had to know something, right?

Elena nodded silently. She would face the sacrifice tomorrow.


	28. Do Not Go Gentle

“It’s dawn,” said Katherine, opening the curtains just enough to let a chink of light seep through. She turned back to Isobel, who was sitting on the bed and staring into her lap with her hands clasped, gaze expressionless. “Maybe we should have a last supper.”

Isobel managed a smile. “Bring me Leonardo DiCaprio to eat and I’ll consider it.”

They were in the master bedroom of what had originally been Isobel’s pad. It was now the room where they were kept prisoner. Katherine and Isobel were not the only occupants; Tyler lay curled up in a large iron cage in the corner of the room, still asleep. Klaus had kept all three of them cooped up, waiting for this day.

Ignoring the werewolf, Katherine sauntered over to join Isobel on the bed. She nudged Isobel’s shoulder. “Leonardo DiCaprio? He hasn’t been hot for a while, you should try... hmm, Daniel Craig. I bet he’s delicious.”

Isobel sighed, unclasping her hands, and lay back, stretching out to stare up at the ceiling. She looked so young, Katherine thought. Her dark hair and clothes stood out starkly against the white covers. Isobel had barely gone past thirty; she was still newly turned in vampire terms, but Klaus had selected her to be his vampire sacrifice.

Katherine was glad that it wasn’t her.

“I used to dream about becoming a vampire,” Isobel said. “Daydream about all the things I was going to do. Not just the blood. The world. The things I was going to see.”

Sensing that Isobel didn’t need a response, Katherine shifted to lay her hand over Isobel’s instead. It was about the only comfort that she could offer.

“I was a terrible mother.” Isobel’s tone was full of regret. “I’ve wished again and again that I never had Elena.”

Katherine understood. “Your daughter was born to a terrible fate. No parent would want that.”

They were silent for a while, Isobel breathing softly, gazing into the middle distance. All the spirit had gone out of her. Katherine recalled what Isobel had been like when they had first met: how eager, how curious, how delightfully hedonistic. She had been a pleasure to teach. But it was because of Isobel that Katherine had discovered Elena, and then everything had changed.

She shifted over on her side, leaning on her elbow as she looked at Isobel curiously. “Can I ask you a question?”

Isobel’s dark eyes met hers.

“Why did you go after Klaus? You didn’t have to; you could have stayed out of this.”

“Do you want the honest truth?” Katherine nodded, and Isobel went on: “It wasn’t for you, Katherine, as much as I love you. I did it for Elena.”

At this late hour, Katherine could not begrudge her that. She squeezed Isobel’s hand. “Then you’re not a terrible mother. Even if Elena never appreciates that.”

Isobel gave a small smile. “Thank you.”

“Familial bonding? How sweet.”

Startled, both women leapt to their feet, instinctively staying close together. Katherine swallowed.

Klaus had entered the room. He gave both of them a sly smile before wandering over to the werewolf cage, where he tapped on the metal bar.

“Wakey wakey.”

Maybe Tyler could sense Klaus’s presence by now, or maybe it was the fact that Klaus had cast a shadow over the cage, but he woke up at once and scrabbled back, staring at Klaus with mingled fear and fury. His face was smudged and dark with stubble, and his clothes were dirty. Klaus had not treated him well.

“Good morning,” Klaus greeted him.

Tyler swallowed, his gaze moving past Klaus to Katherine and Isobel. She was fairly sure that their expressions said it all, because he slumped down against the back of the cage.

“So this is it.”

“This is it,” Klaus agreed. He turned back to the two women. “Katerina, my love. Would you join me for a moment?”

Katherine took a breath and squared her shoulders before approaching him. She looked Klaus right in the eye. He could compel her, had already done so. There was no point in trying to hide from his gaze.

“You’ve been very helpful these past few weeks.” Klaus spoke softly. “And I think good work should be rewarded. That’s why I’m going to let you go free.”

She couldn’t believe her ears. “What?”

He smiled. “You heard me.” He reached out and took her hand, stroking his thumb over the ring on her finger. She stared at him, hardly daring to breathe. Was this a trick? “When I let go of your hand,” he went on, “you’re free to go. As long as you don’t interfere with the sacrifice tonight, you can do as you please. Of course, your life remains bound to mine, but that’s a small detail. Enjoy your freedom, Katerina. Make good use of it.”

He stepped back then, releasing her hand, and for a moment Katherine stood still, her heart pounding. Tyler was watching her with incredulity. She glanced back at Isobel, who gave her a tiny nod.

And Katherine understood. Klaus hadn’t freed her out of the goodness of his heart; he had a purpose for her. Somewhere in Mystic Falls, his brother was still plotting to kill him. By binding his own life to hers, Klaus had ensured one thing: she could not stand back and watch Elijah kill him.

She had to save Klaus’s life.

Her mouth tightened. She nodded at Isobel, a final goodbye. Then she got the hell out of there.

*

  
“I haven’t practised any magic since I moved away,” said Abigail.

Her mother was staring out of the car window, elbow propping up her chin. They were on their way to the witch burial ground. Bonnie thought that she would be happy never to set foot in that house again, but she had to be the escort. It didn’t feel right not to be there.

“You gave it up?”

Abby nodded. “I decided that I didn’t want to be a witch any more. I wanted a normal life.”

Bonnie paused, raising an eyebrow at her mother. “Are you sure you’re up to this?”

They couldn’t afford to have a weak link.

“I’m up to this. It’s not something... you ever forget. As much as I wanted to.”

They pulled up outside the old house, and Bonnie sighed. “Well, here we are.” She got out and slammed the door shut. Abigail followed after her, more reluctantly.

Before they reached the entrance, however, the front door creaked open, and a figure stepped out.

Bonnie stopped. “Lucy.”

Lucy put a hand on her hip, tilting her head as she smiled at both of them. “Bonnie. And Abby. Long time no see.”

Bonnie looked at her mother, startled. “Wait... you two know each other?”

“We’ve met,” said Abby. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.”

Lucy raised an eyebrow, but made no comment. She held the door open for them. “The others are inside.”

Bonnie stepped through after her mother, shivering as she passed over the threshold. She could feel the spirits here already; they were waiting too. Witches both living and dead, about to come together and share their power...

She could feel the age of these rooms as they walked through them. It was profoundly strange.

“So,” said Lucy, nudging her, “how’s tricks?”

Bonnie made a face. “Honestly? Desperate.”

“You like to keep things last minute, huh? I got a call from Elena only yesterday.”

“Well, you didn’t exactly make it easy for me to keep in touch.”

She bit her lip the moment she’d said it. Lucy paused for a moment, and then laughed.

“Yeah, I guess I didn’t.”

She didn’t apologize, and Bonnie forced her resentment away. For so long, she’d been coping with all this on her own. Today she had a job to do that required help, and she had it – she couldn’t jeopardize that.

They descended a set of stairs into a room lit only by candles. Three people were waiting there for them: Jonas, Luka, and a woman Bonnie didn’t recognize. Much of her face was hidden by flickering shadow, but she had short white hair that stood out against her surroundings, and Bonnie caught a glimpse of a grim expression. She immediately had the impression that this woman was formidable.

Jonas looked around at them. “Are we all here?”

Lucy gave him a sideways glance. “Were you expecting anyone else?” She held out her hand. “Lucy.”

“Jonas. This is my son, Luka.”

The white-haired woman stepped forward. “Gloria. You’re the Bennett clan, I presume.”

After the introductions had been exchanged, there was an awkward silence for a moment, all of them sizing each other up.

Then Jonas spoke. “Shall we begin?”

He held out one hand to his son, who took it, and then his other hand to Gloria. Bonnie took a deep breath and looked at her mother, extending her hand. Abby’s expression faltered for a moment, a flash of doubt crossing her eyes, but then she nodded, and stepped forward to join the circle. Soon enough all the witches had joined hands – on her other side, Lucy grasped her hand firmly, her touch warm and reassuring, and she gave a quick smile to Bonnie.

The candle flames leapt to life.

Bonnie closed her eyes.

*

  
Things had changed. To her great surprise – and annoyance – Katherine attempted to slip inside the Gilbert house only to find that she couldn’t get past the door.

“What the hell?” she muttered. She had been invited in. Had the house changed owners?

There was her first plan in tatters. She could have threatened any of the Gilbert family to find out where Elijah was and how he was intending to kill Klaus, but not if she couldn’t get in.

For a moment, she was at a loss.

She had to find him. Not only because Elijah was clearly the biggest threat to Klaus, but also because he had compelled her to return to him. She couldn’t leave Mystic Falls without tracking him down; in fact, it was hard to concentrate on anything else. Katherine huffed, frustrated. The compulsion was messing with her head, making it difficult for her to carry out her true goal – to save herself.

So. Plan B. What was it to be?

She bit her lip as she turned away from the house, thinking. That was when she spotted a familiar figure watching her from across the street.

Katherine’s eyes darkened. Teeth bared, she rushed the figure. But before she could reach him, the figure held up a hand and it felt as though her skull had split open. Hissing in agony, Katherine fell to the ground barely a foot away from him, clutching her head.

“I’d advise you not to do that,” said Maddox pleasantly.

He lowered his hand, and the pain receded, but she knew that he was on his guard. Even with vampire reflexes, she wouldn’t be quick enough to kill him before he stopped her.

“So are you keeping an eye on me?” she bit out. “Making sure I do my bit to help Klaus?”

This whole freedom thing was turning out to be even more of an illusion than she had previously thought.

He paused, watching her as she straightened up to regard him. “What do you want to do?”

“I need to find Elijah.”

He smiled. “That, I can help with.”

*

  
Elena parked her car outside the old farmhouse and got out, shivering as she looked around. The morning air felt brisk and fresh, and somewhere amongst the trees beyond the road, there was the faint sound of birdsong.

This was the place where Elijah had kept her prisoner. She walked up to the entrance and knocked at the door, her stomach tightening in anticipation.

A few seconds later, Elijah opened it.

She smiled, though she felt on edge – jittery. “Elijah.”

His expression was grave. “I’m surprised you wanted to meet me here.”

“I know.” She shook her head. “I just needed to get out of the house.”

Technically she should have been at school, but if there was any day she was allowed to skip school, Elena figured it was this one.

He stepped aside. “Come in.”

Elena followed him inside, hesitating as he showed her to the living room. A fire burned in the heath; the curtains were drawn. Everything felt still and silent. This house had some bad memories for her – but then again, so did most places in Mystic Falls. She felt curiously nostalgic – here was the place where she and Elijah had agreed to work together again, where he had given her back her necklace... She stepped over towards the window, pushing aside the curtain to look out of it as she had done days before. She remembered the cool touch of Elijah’s fingers on her neck, that sense of being both vulnerable and not-vulnerable... It was a feeling that shouldn’t have intrigued her so powerfully, but she could no longer deny that it had.

She swallowed as she watched Elijah walk over to the bookcase. “Where’s Irene?”

He took a moment to answer, picking up something from the shelf before he turned to face her. “Mrs Roberts? Gone.”

She caught her breath. “What do you mean?”

“Dead.” His tone was heavy. “I discovered her body when I returned here. She was killed by a vampire, most likely your mother.”

Elena couldn’t speak. Another innocent person had died because of the vampires in Mystic Falls. Because of Elijah. Because of Isobel. Because of her.

“Luckily, Isobel didn’t find this,” Elijah continued, holding up a decanter. It was a dull gold in colour, made of glass, but unlike a wine bottle or something of that sort, the surface was heavily furrowed.

“The elixir,” she breathed.

The potion that would save her life, where so many others had died. The reason she had come here.

“Yes.”

He walked over to her, and Elena tried to breathe normally. She was incredibly wound up – the news of Irene’s death was just another bad thing in a long line of terrible things, so much so that she almost felt numb to it.

“Elena?”

Of course he had picked up on how tense she was. “I just...”

“You were right,” he said. “I used Mrs Roberts during our stay here, and the result was her untimely death. I will take the responsibility for that, Elena.”

She nodded. There were worse things to tell him – the rings, the fact that they couldn’t kill Klaus without killing her friends, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to say it yet.

Elijah seemed to take that as acceptance. He handed her the elixir and she took it, cupping her hands around the ancient decanter, its elaborate ridges pressing into her skin. She lifted it to her mouth and drank, and to her surprise it tasted like sweet water, cool and refreshing. She’d been expecting something old and dusty.

She wiped her mouth and looked at Elijah. “Thank you for trying to save me.”

He was very close; she could see every line of his face in the firelight. “You’re welcome.”

Her mouth trembled. “Elijah... this plan with the witches...”

“Yes?”

She took a deep breath before answering. “We can’t go through with it.”

*

  
As spacious as the Salvatore boarding house was, Damon still felt like a wild animal trapped inside it. He paced around the living room restlessly, Stefan watching him from by the window. He was on the phone to Jenna, since Elena wasn’t answering her calls.

“She’s gone out,” Jenna informed him.

“Gone out?” Damon repeated. “Today of all days, you let her go out?”

“Yes, today of all days!” Jenna snapped. “That’s my call, not yours.”

“So where is she?” Stefan asked. He spoke quietly, but Damon knew that his brother was as anxious as he was.

Damon repeated the question to Jenna, who didn’t have the advantage of vampire hearing on the other side of the phone.

“She’s with Elijah,” was the response, and Damon clicked his tongue in frustration. “Taking that elixir thing he told her about.”

He groaned. “No.”

That was it. Elena was going to let herself be sacrificed. He knew it. She was avoiding them because she knew that they would stop her – but if it came down to a choice between the lives of her friends and killing Klaus, Elena would rather let Klaus go scot-free.

He hung up without waiting to hear Jenna’s opinion on it. Whatever she thought didn’t matter. Instead, he shoved his phone into his pocket and looked at Stefan.

“We have to stop her.”

Stefan sighed. “She said something last night, Damon... About Elijah. That she has feelings for him.”

He blinked. “ _What?_ ”

“She trusts him more than either of us right now.”

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Then she must have been compelled. Elijah has her right where he wants her. Klaus too – he’s going to go ahead with the sacrifice, Elena will die, and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“I’ve arranged to meet the witches,” said Stefan. “They’re our only chance right now.”

“Yeah.”

And didn’t that piss him off. If Damon knew one thing, it was that witches were chronically unreliable. He couldn’t stand the fact that they were waiting around for Bonnie and her new pals to come back from their ghost-witch bonding or whatever it was they were doing.

There had to be another way.

*

  
Elijah cursed under his breath when Elena explained. She was holding back tears; he had noticed that from the moment she stepped inside, and now he understood why.

“I can’t let Klaus be killed if it means my friends will die,” she finished. “I did all this to save them. If we can’t find a way to undo the spell, then we – we have to go ahead with the sacrifice.”

He shook his head. “The entire point of this was to kill Klaus. If he doesn’t die at the end of it, then your sacrifice will have been for nothing.”

“It won’t be for nothing. If Klaus gets what he wants, he’ll leave Mystic Falls, and maybe then this town will finally get some peace.”

They couldn’t count on that, he thought. Klaus’s moods were unpredictable; he could very easily decide to slaughter half the population after becoming a hybrid, just to test his new powers out. But he could tell simply by looking at Elena that she knew this; she was grasping at straws, and he couldn’t blame her. Her eyes beseeched him to do something, to help. He only wished that he could.

“We’ll know more when we talk to the witches,” he said. “Then we can make an informed decision.”

She nodded. She had resigned herself to her fate again, he thought, had taken the elixir because it looked like her only option. He held out his hand to take the empty elixir bottle from her, and set it aside on the coffee table. When he turned back, she was standing oddly still, watching him, and something about that felt strange. Elijah frowned.

“Would you like me to accompany you home?”

“No,” she said. “Elijah, can I... can I stay here for a little while longer?”

She looked fragile. He’d never really thought that about her before, despite her mortality.

“Of course,” he said. “Please, sit.”

She did so, looked down at her hands tucked in her lap. Elijah hesitated for a moment before walking over to sit down next to her. She had asked to stay; he could only surmise that she wanted him to be there too.

“Is there anything I can do?”

She didn’t respond immediately. Instead, she closed her eyes, her long lashes showing no hint of a tear. Already she had composed herself; he had met vampires thirty times her age with far less poise. When she looked at him again, it was to ask an entirely unexpected question. “What will you do when this is over?”

He had to think about it. “Leave.”

If they killed Klaus, then his mission was accomplished, and he had no more reason to stay in Mystic Falls. If Klaus survived, then Elijah would have to run; he had no weapon that could kill Klaus as a hybrid, not even a witch.

“Where will you go?”

“Back to New York first, probably. Then Europe. Prague.”

She nodded, expression wistful. “It sounds wonderful. I’ve never been outside the States...”

“I could take you, if you wanted.”

The words slipped out of his mouth almost before he had thought of them, and he swallowed. Elijah always considered his words carefully. He never said too much, never revealed too much, and in this moment he had broken both of those rules. Whatever he felt about Elena – and her close proximity left him with no illusions about that – now was certainly not the time to leave his feelings unguarded.

He would take her anywhere she wanted, if only they had the chance.

Elena didn’t shy away or baulk at the suggestion, as he might have thought.

“We could go tomorrow,” she said, and she gave him a smile that was so warm and so sad at the same time that he almost couldn’t bear to look at her. But he wouldn’t do her the discourtesy of looking away, of refusing to acknowledge the meaning behind her words: tomorrow. “Tell me,” Elena went on. “Tell me where you would take me. Tell me... what’s the most beautiful place you’ve ever been?”

He paused. “That place is no longer what it was. But I can show you.”

She blinked. “Show me?”

“In a dream.”

He guessed that she knew about this particular vampire ability, and his assumption wasn’t wrong. Elena’s mouth opened in a small ‘oh’, and then she nodded. Straightening up, she lifted her hands to take off her necklace and discarded it on the table in front of them, next to the elixir.

His mouth curled upwards, just the barest hint of a smirk. “You need to be asleep first. Would you like to go somewhere more comfortable?”

She gave him a look, but she couldn’t suppress an amused smile. “I’m fine here. Can you just... make me forget all this? At least for a while.”

He understood. He had put her through this nightmare, even if he wasn’t the entire cause of it. He couldn’t deny her a brief respite.

“Just for a while,” he promised.

*

  
Caroline walked into history class fifteen minutes early to find Alaric at his desk, which would have surprised no one but her. She gave him a look, putting one hand on her hip.

“Alaric Saltzman, why are you at school?”

“Last I checked, I work here,” he answered dryly. “Why are you here?”

“To compel Mrs Winters into changing the attendance register. We may have a terrible blood ritual to get through tonight that not all of us are going to come out alive from, but I am not going to let that ruin my chances of getting into college.”

He laughed. “Well, you still can’t compel me into giving you an A on your non-existent paper.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I don’t care about history anyways.”

“Oh, but history is very important,” a female voice drawled. “Right, Mr Saltzman? I’m surprised you never asked me to educate you... I did live through the entirety of American history.”

Katherine. Caroline gulped, sharing a look with Alaric who had already gotten to his feet, before turning to face the other vampire. She dreaded seeing Katherine’s smug, treacherous face again. Wasn’t she supposed to be Klaus’s prisoner? But it wasn’t Katherine that made her eyes widen and a gasp escape her lips.

It was Matt.

Katherine had her arm hooked around Matt’s. A predatory smile lit up her face. Her hair was straight like Elena and she was dressed like Elena, no doubt to fool her schoolmates, but there was no mistaking her. Matt, poor Matt – her heart clenched at the sight – he looked utterly bewildered and scared.

“What are you doing here?” Alaric asked, his voice harsh. He came over to stand next to Caroline. She hoped that he wasn’t going to play the hero. Neither of them could stand up to Katherine.

“Good question,” said Katherine crisply. “I’m looking for Elena. Does she _ever_ go to school?”

“She’s not here,” said Caroline. “And if you want to pick her up for Klaus, don’t bother. Tell him he can do his own dirty work.”

Her heart was pounding. She didn’t feel brave at all; she was sure that Katherine would see straight through her defiance. And Matt... Her heart was breaking for him, he looked so scared... He tried to wrench free out of Katherine’s grip, to no avail; Caroline knew from experience how much that would hurt.

Matt found his voice. “Caroline – what the hell? What’s going on?”

Katherine ignored him. “She’s not at home and she’s not at the Salvatore boarding house. Don’t tell me she’s run away. I’m on a schedule, Caroline. As soon as my witch finds Elijah, I have to go, so I’m not messing around here. Where is she?”

“Well, maybe you should get your witch to work faster, because that’s where Elena is.”

Katherine raised an eyebrow. “She’s with Elijah?”

“Yeah.”

Alaric looked confused. “Wait, what? How do you know that?”

Caroline just gave him a look. “I used a phone. You should try it some time.”

She, Bonnie, and Elena had all worked out in advance what they were going to do today. Bonnie was meeting the other witches, Elena had gone to take the elixir, and Caroline was taking care of everything at school. She’d also volunteered to co-ordinate everything, which was how they’d decided to all meet up with the witches later on so that they could form their game plan. She could ask the Martins to seal her house then too. But she wasn’t about to tell Katherine any of that.

“So Elijah’s keeping her until he’s ready to hand her over to Klaus,” Katherine surmised.

 _Wrong_ , Caroline thought, but didn’t deny it.

“All right,” Katherine went on. “What if I told you that Tyler is the werewolf Klaus is planning to sacrifice in tonight’s ritual?”

It was like a physical blow. “What?”

Matt’s eyes had widened, but Katherine kept going. “That’s right. Didn’t you guys ever think about that part? But if you want to save him... I can tell you where he is.”

Caroline felt like her heart had stopped. Tyler. She’d – well, she had thought about him over the past couple of weeks, but with everything else that had been going on, he just hadn’t been on her radar. The last time she had asked Carol about him, there had been no news. How had this happened?

Alaric spoke for her. “Why would you do that?”

“Why would I want to stop Klaus from becoming an all-powerful hybrid? Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because when he does, we’ll be stuck with him forever. If we can delay the ritual, that buys us some time to figure out how to get rid of these stupid rings.”

She waved her hand at them in exasperation, but Caroline still didn’t understand.

“You’re compelled by Klaus. Don’t you have to help him complete the ritual?”

“Not any more. Klaus let me go.”

“Okay, I’m not buying any of this,” Alaric said. “What are you doing with Matt? Let the poor kid go.”

Katherine rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

She shoved Matt forward, and Caroline caught him as he stumbled towards her. “It’s okay,” she murmured, “it’s okay, Matt...”

Katherine had already turned to go. “Consider this a token of my good will. Oh, and bye, Matt,” she tossed over her shoulder. “It was fun sleeping with you.”

She disappeared, and Alaric quickly moved over to place a hand on Matt’s shoulder.  
“You okay?”

He nodded, but it was clearly an automatic response; nothing about him looked okay. He was breathing hard; she could see the whites around his eyes. He was in shock.

Caroline ground her teeth. What she wouldn’t have given to have Bonnie with her right now... They could have taken down Katherine easily. But...

“Tyler,” she breathed. “Katherine didn’t say where he was.”

Matt cleared his throat. “An address. She gave me an address.”

He fumbled inside his jacket pocket, before pulling out his cell phone.

Caroline watched him. “She _texted_ you? Katherine has your cell phone number?”

“I thought she was Elena,” Matt snapped. “What is she, an evil twin?”

“Something like that,” said Alaric, rubbing his face. “Well, I guess that’s my teaching over for the day. Can you compel me an excuse too, Caroline?”

“Yeah,” said Caroline, and then something dawned on her. “Oh, crap.”

Alaric looked at her. “What?”

“Katherine wanted to find Elena. She never said why. If she wants to stop the ritual, do you think that means...”

“She wants to kill her.” Alaric’s face was grim. “I’ll call Damon.”


	29. Extreme Measures

Elena marvelled at the intensity of the lake before her, a deep clear blue unlike anything she’d ever seen. Around her, the forest was evergreen: she could smell the freshness of the pine cones, feel the softness of the needles underfoot. Above her, a flock of geese winged their way across the cloud-scudded sky. And beside her, there was a series of waterfalls, each one gushing into the next, dashing over rocks and into jagged gullies before settling down into the still mirror of the lake.

The air was startlingly clear; she felt as though she could see for miles, across the vast length of the lake, to the snow-capped hills in the distance.

It was breathtaking.

She walked over to the lake’s edge, warmly dressed in a long coat and scarf, and tucked her hair behind her ears as she drank it all in. Her breath formed little puffs of smoke, but she didn’t feel the chill. It was all... abstract. The idea of cold, she thought.

Elijah came to stand beside her.

She glanced at him. “Where are we?”

“Norway,” he replied. “The forests, before they were touched by acid rain.”

“It’s beautiful.”

Elijah nodded. “This fjord was formed by a glacier... Over thousands of years, the melt-water carves its way into steep valleys like this one... And at night, sometimes...”

They stood together in darkness, but as with the manner of dreams, this shift did not feel strange to Elena. The stars were cold pinpricks reflecting off the water’s surface. She stepped a little closer to Elijah, and looked up, awe-struck, as shimmering lights flickered across the night sky.

“The aurora,” Elijah finished. “The northern lights.”

It was like watching a celestial dance: loops of colour, pink and blue and green, swaying in the heavens. For a while, silence reigned; all she could hear was the wind blowing through the trees, and it was easy to imagine that the heavens were sighing. Elena thought that she could sense a rhythm to it, the movement of the aurora and the sighing of the wind whispering together, as though the swirls of colour were silken fabrics brushing over the dresses of dancers in the sky.

She was mesmerized.

“There are some things that are beyond us,” Elijah mused. “Beyond all of us.”

Elena tore her gaze from the aurora to look at him, at the lights playing over his face. She was reminded again of how old he was, the number of years he must have walked this earth... His eyes were intense. But there was a beauty in them, she thought, like the aurora. Cold, remote, unattainable, immortal; and yet here. She had danced with him. She had felt his heartbeat matching hers.

The wind whispered in her ears. She reached out, placing a gloved hand on his chest, and as he looked at her, she felt a delightful shiver in her heart. “Were you alone, when you came here?”

“Yes.” He gave her a small smile. “Perhaps it is better appreciated with company.”

“Was there ever anyone else?”

He blinked.

“After Tatia. Was there ever anyone else? Katherine–”

“No,” he said flatly, cutting her off. “I am a vampire. I have no use for love.”

He had become coldness itself again. She wondered what was holding him back. How could he have lived as a vampire for over a thousand years and not fallen in love? He hadn’t switched off his emotions, she was sure of that; they were all there, beneath the surface.

Above them, the aurora trembled.

She bit her lip. “Is that true?”

His voice softened. “It’s surprising how much you can accomplish without love getting in the way. Besides, the two aren’t exactly compatible.”

“With being a vampire?” She frowned, letting her hand drop back to her side. “You mean, being with a human...”

It was the inescapable truth that she had refused to face with Stefan: she could not grow old with him. They couldn’t spend their lives together. Not if she remained human.

“Being with anyone,” was his reply. “I am immortal, and love is not designed to last forever. It fades quickly. I wonder if the problem with vampires is their inability to let go of emotions that defined them when they were human... We are creatures frozen in time – you have the ability to move on. You can still grow.”

She nodded slowly, again thinking of Stefan. He was a perpetual teenager; it wouldn’t be long before she became physically older than him. Was she already beginning to outgrow him?

He took her hand, and she caught her breath, startled. “I’m sorry, Elena. But I must remind you of our immediate concerns.”

She blinked. The aurora had faded, the sky was darkening... Everything felt cloudy, heavy...

Elijah’s eyes gazed into hers.

“And back to the way you were.”

Elena drew in a long breath. She was... awake. Yes. It had been a dream, and already it was fading, as vivid as it had been. Her head was resting in the crook of Elijah’s arm, and she automatically curled around to press against his chest, one hand tugging at his suit jacket. Then her brain caught up with her senses. She sat up, arching away from him, embarrassed.

She was on his lap.

“You’ll have to excuse me,” said Elijah, amused. “You’re a clingy sleeper. I didn’t intend to wake you so suddenly, but we’re about to have a visitor...”

“What?” Her eyes widened; she was awake enough to process what he had just said, but not to react to it.

Then she heard a familiar voice, dark with fury. “Well, isn’t this cosy.”

Startled, Elena turned her head to look across the room, and her stomach dropped. She got to her feet, moving over to snatch up her necklace from the coffee table, and sensed Elijah standing up behind her. She lifted the necklace to put it on again as quickly as she could. The reality of their situation was setting in again, like a weight around her neck.

“I see it didn’t take long for you to use compulsion.”

Damon’s face was already changing, the blood darkening his eyes. He rushed Elijah, who moved too fast for her to see; all Elena knew was that in the next second Elijah had thrown Damon across the room – he crashed into the wall, breaking a desk chair and probably a few bones in the process.

“No!” she gasped. “Stop!”

Damon was already getting up, and Elena knew that there was only one thing she could do to stop this pointless battle: she ran forward and placed herself in front of Elijah, shielding him. Her hand found Elijah’s arm and took hold of it, and she felt him go still.

“I asked him to compel me, Damon,” she said.

Damon still looked furious, but they were locked into a stand-off. He gritted his teeth. “What?”

“I...” She stopped. She couldn’t tell him the real reason; the very thought of it felt too... personal. She swallowed, hoping that her cheeks weren’t red. “I needed leverage against Klaus. So I asked Elijah to compel me to kill myself if Klaus killed any of you.”

“Did you ask him to get so touchy-feely too?”

She couldn’t respond. She heard Elijah’s words in her head again: _You’re a clingy sleeper._ The truth was that she had just wanted someone to hold on to. She tried to mentally add _anyone_ , but couldn’t.

She felt awful.

Elijah spoke. “Why are you here, Damon?”

“Picking up our girlfriend,” said Damon. “Assuming you’re done with her, of course. I’d hate to interrupt.”

Elena bit back an angry retort. He was upset; he couldn’t have been more obviously jealous if he’d tried, and lashing out at an upset Damon was never a good idea. She turned to glance up at Elijah. She could feel the tension in his body, as though she was holding back a dam: all that immense power, coiled up and contained by the simple act of placing her hand on his arm. But he looked at her, and when she nodded, he inclined his head almost imperceptibly.

“I was about to go anyway,” she said. She moved away from Elijah to pick up her jacket, knowing that both men were still watching her. “You can take me home, Damon. I need to be with my family. Elijah... We’ll see you later.”

She waited for either of them to object, but they didn’t. Damon immediately moved forward and grabbed her arm none too gently, pulling her away. At that moment she would not have objected to Elijah tossing him into a wall again, but she gritted her teeth and let him escort her out of the house.

Of course, Damon started lecturing her the moment they walked outside. “How many times do I have to tell you that Elijah is bad news?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry if taking an elixir that could save my life is such a terrible thing.”

“Just get in.”

He opened the car door for her – the passenger door, despite it being her car. She huffed, but climbed in anyway. If he wanted to be an ass about it, fine. She folded her arms and refused to speak while he started the engine and backed out of the driveway.

Once they got onto the highway, doubt began to nag at her.

“You are taking me home, right?”

“Yes. But I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re not being overbearing about it. We wouldn’t want that.”

He ignored the jibe, staring into the rear view mirror. “Well, if you’d stop being actively suicidal, maybe I wouldn’t have to save your ass every time you walk into Elijah’s oh-so-eager arms. If it isn’t bad enough that the Originals want to sacrifice you, now you actually want them to compel you to kill yourself?”

“I don’t have a choice! What’s your solution, Damon? Did you find out how to despell those rings yet? Because if you did, I want you to tell me.”

Her hands had balled into fists; she was breathing hard. Damon managed to infuriate her so quickly – well, the feeling was mutual. They just didn’t agree on how to handle the situation.

“One problem at a time. Right now, I’m making sure that you’re safe.” He looked sideways at her. “Katherine’s after you.”

She paused, all her emotion deflated through sheer surprise. “What?”

“She got away from Klaus, she wants to stop the ritual, and she’s looking for you. Best way to do that is...”

“By killing me.”

Elena hadn’t thought that things could get any worse. She hated how often that had been proven wrong. She leaned her head back against her seat, sighing. Just something else beyond her control.

“Relax,” said Damon. “I won’t let that happen.”

The car was slowing down. Elena frowned when she noticed. They were still outside town, in the middle of nowhere. The highway was empty.

“Damon... What are you doing?”

He’d pulled over to the side of the road. Without speaking, he opened the car door and got out. Angry and confused, Elena did the same, stalking over to glare at him.

“Why have we stopped?”

“Because we’re not going through with this,” said Damon. “Any of it. Until these rings come off, Klaus can’t have you. Simple as that.”

Understanding dawned. She shook her head. “No... He’ll _kill_ you. He’ll kill everyone.”

“Didn’t you just say that you’re compelled to kill yourself if that happens?” The look he gave her was mocking. “So if I’m not already dead, I’ll get to watch as you commit suicide.”

 _No_ , she thought. That wasn’t how she had wanted it to happen. She regretted telling him now; she had meant it only as a safety measure, not a gambit to be played or gambled with.

“He’ll never believe that you’ll do that.”

Damon’s voice was carefully light and controlled, simply stating a fact: “He’ll believe when I feed you my blood.”

Her breath caught. She backed away, suddenly afraid of him. “No, Damon... Don’t.”

She watched as the vampire in him rose to the surface again: his eyes darkened, his fangs bared.

“Damon,” she tried again. “If you love me, you won’t do this. Please. I don’t want this.”

But she knew, her heart sinking, that her plea was all in vain: it was _because_ he loved her that he would do this to her. It was because he loved her that he lashed out, that he had snapped Jeremy’s neck, plotted to kill Elijah behind her back, constantly ignored her wishes in his mission to save her life no matter the cost.

He bit into his wrist.

A hand clamped over her mouth, muffling her scream.

*

  
“Excuse me for pointing out the obvious,” said Gloria. “But aren’t there supposed to be seven of us? I only count six.”

Bonnie looked around at the others in the circle. Abigail, Lucy, Gloria, Jonas, Luka, and herself. They had channelled the power that resided in this house; every single one of them was capable of taking down an Original vampire. But Gloria was right, Bonnie thought; they were still missing one person. There was no one else to call on.

It was Jonas who replied. “We’ll complete the circle tonight,” he said, “when my daughter joins us.”

Startled, Bonnie exchanged a glance with Luka. _Greta?_ Did the Martins really think that she would join them? Luka gave her a small nod. He believed it, she thought. But he hadn’t seen Greta, the way she had strolled up to them at the ball and taken them out.

“Your daughter,” Gloria repeated, sounding unimpressed. “So why isn’t she here now? Did she get held up baking cookies?”

“Because she’s working for Klaus!” Bonnie said, unable to hold it in any longer. “Doctor Martin, do you really think she’s going to switch sides? She did this to me.”

She held up her hand, showing the ring that Greta had forcibly attached to her finger.

Gloria stepped forward, curious. “What’s that on your finger, honey?”

Bonnie bit her lip, a little nervous in front of the older witch, before holding out her hand. “Klaus’s witches attacked us. When we woke up...”

Gloria lifted her hand up, running her fingers over the metal. She seemed to sense something that Bonnie couldn’t, because she shook her head.

“This pretty jewel ain’t a ruby; it’s glass. This is a blood ring. You said Klaus did this to you?”

She nodded. “Klaus said that it would bind our lives to his. So if he dies...”

“So do you.” Gloria’s face was grim. “That’s his blood in the glass. Neat trick.”

Abby stepped forward. “Can’t you do something about it? Anyone?”

Gloria shook her head. “Only the witch who cast the spell can undo it. Unless you have her spellbook.”

They didn’t, of course. So she had to hope that there was a chance of getting Greta on their side. She looked at Jonas and Luka again, but before she could say anything, both of them looked up at something behind her.

The atmosphere in the room tensed. Jonas’s jaw had set, Gloria raised her eyebrows, and Lucy’s expression became visibly cooler.

Bonnie turned.

“Stefan,” she said.

He was at the top of the staircase, looking down at them all. “Bonnie, can I talk to you for a second?”

She frowned. “Sure.”

“We’ll be with you guys in a second,” Stefan said, nodding at the rest of them.  
Bonnie gave her mother one final look – they were bound together now, all of them, whether they liked it or not. Abby looked as though she wanted to speak; her mouth trembled, but she said nothing. She nodded, stepping back, and Bonnie turned to follow Stefan.

Her mother didn’t want her to die fighting Klaus. She supposed that she ought to be grateful, to have some sign that Abby cared about her, but Bonnie was already filing it away as another complication to be dealt with. Every single witch had to be onboard with what they were about to do. If any of them faltered...

Stefan didn’t stop until they had reached the front entrance. Bonnie had to blink to adjust her eyes to the sudden light before giving him a questioning look.

“What is it, is something wrong?”

“Katherine’s after Elena,” said Stefan quietly. “We think she’s trying to stop the sacrifice ritual from happening. Damon’s gone to collect Elena.” He explained, Bonnie listening in silence. “That’s not all,” he finished. “Klaus has Tyler. Alaric and Caroline have gone to rescue him.”

She stared at him. “What? But if Klaus doesn’t have a werewolf, he can’t perform the sacrifice ritual.”

“I know,” said Stefan heavily.

“So what, we hold off for another month? I brought these witches together so that we could finish Klaus tonight.”

How were they supposed to survive another month anyway? Klaus wouldn’t be happy if any of them thwarted his plans.

“Tyler doesn’t have to die,” she went on. “If we go ahead as planned, we can take out Klaus before he sacrifices anyone.”

He nodded. “Caroline didn’t want to take that chance. And Elena... She doesn’t want us to go through with this if we die in the process.”

“I know a way around that.” He raised his eyebrows, and Bonnie continued: “The witch who cast the spell has the power to undo it. All we have to do is find Greta... and convince her to help us. The Martins can help. It could work, Stefan.”

He frowned, and she stared at him, imploring him. They couldn’t turn back now.

Finally, he nodded. “Then let’s go find Greta.”

*

  
Caroline sat in her car, tapping the steering wheel nervously. She was waiting for Alaric to collect his weapon stash so that they could go and rescue Tyler. In the meantime Matt was sitting next to her. He’d insisted on coming, even though he didn’t really know what he was getting into.

This was awkward. She couldn’t even look at him.

“So,” he said, “Tyler’s a werewolf? I didn’t see that coming.”

“Let’s just say you’ve missed a few things.”

“You wanna tell me? What are we up against?”

She sighed. “An all-powerful Original vampire, a couple of witches, and his vampire minions.”

“I’m starting to think that this must be a really bad dream,” said Matt.

Privately, she agreed. Her eyes flicked to the rear view mirror, spotting Alaric approaching with his weapon bag. She started the car, and only then did she look at Matt.

“You should get out, you know. Walk away, go back to school. No offence, Matt, but there’s really not much you can do to help.”

He shook his head. “Maybe not, but I can try. I can’t leave you to go it alone, Caroline. Even if you’ve got a vampire-hunting history teacher to help you.”

He said that as Alaric climbed into the back seat, and leaned forward to look at both of them. Caroline spoke over her shoulder.

“All stocked up?”

“I always am.”

“Okay,” said Caroline. “I’ll explain everything on the way.”

By the time they pulled up outside Klaus’s temporary hide-out, Matt had gotten the full story, or the most relevant bits at least. She had neglected to mention that she was also a vampire. That could come later.

“You still with us?” Caroline asked, giving him a look. She knew it was a lot to take in. He looked even paler than normal, and he swallowed, but his jaw set.

“Yeah. Tell me what I can do to help.”

“Well,” said Alaric. “We’re going in there. I’ve got a ring that protects me from supernatural death, and Caroline has a couple other tricks up her sleeve. As the resident unprotected human, and as my student, I’m gonna have to tell you to stay here. We’ll get Tyler out, and you can take him home. Okay?”

There was a moment’s pause before Matt nodded. Caroline shared a look with Alaric.

 _Okay_ , she thought. _Here we go._

*

  
The house seemed dark and empty, devoid of any living occupants. Elijah was packing up, getting ready to leave, when he heard the staircase creak. He tensed at once, looking over to the bedroom door which was only slightly ajar. Did Klaus know that he was here?

“Elijah?” a voice called.

He would have relaxed, for it wasn’t his brother, but the nervous timbre in that voice set a knot of anxiety burning in his stomach. Elijah set the ties that he had been arranging down on the bed, and looked up as the door opened.

“Elena?”

It was her. She hesitated before stepping inside, her hands shaking a little on the doorframe. He regarded her uncertainly. Something was wrong.

Elena took a deep breath. “Damon fed me his blood.”

Her eyes dropped. From the way she said it, he knew that Damon had forced it upon her. His jaw twitched; he could feel a great rage building up within him, like a tidal wave crashing over the sea, but the object of his anger was not here. Why had he not insisted on accompanying her with Damon? He should have known that the younger vampire’s impulsive nature would get the better of him.

So Elijah seethed inwardly, but he controlled himself. “He is determined to ensure that you survive whatever the cost.”

She nodded. “There’s nothing to be done, is there? Klaus will kill me... and I’ll come back as a vampire.”

He knew that becoming a vampire was the last thing she wanted. Damon had left her with no choice. He would rip out Damon’s fangs for this, but in the meantime there was Elena trembling before him. If it came to it, he thought, he would help her transition, and do his best to ensure that becoming a vampire didn’t destroy her. But before that, he would do everything in his power to ensure that she didn’t turn. She deserved that much.

He approached her, Elena watching him with wide eyes. “I’m sorry, Elena. Feeding you vampire blood rendered the elixir useless.”

Confusion flashed across her features for a second before she shook her head. “It’s okay. I didn’t come to you expecting a solution. At least if Klaus is dead... it might be worth it.”

“If it comes to that,” he said, “you can count on my help.”

She nodded, mouth tight. “I – I should probably go. I just thought that I should tell you in person.”

He frowned for a moment, opened his mouth and then closed it. It was probably better not to question her. A suspicion was forming in his mind, and he didn’t want to give that suspicion away.

“Of course.” He lifted her hand, and pressed a light kiss to it. “Until tomorrow, Elena.”

Her eyes widened. She stared at his hand, surprised, but then ducked her head. “Until tomorrow.”

She left quickly, her head still down, long hair shielding her face. She didn’t look back.

Elijah watched her retreat, and then glanced down at his hand, feeling the ghost of her fingers in his. She had been wearing a ring, silver, set with a ruby. Elena had described those rings to him. Rings that bound the life of their wearer to another.  
He curled his hand into a fist. _Katerina._

*

  
Elena had suffered the indignity of being bundled into a car and stripped to her underwear, but at least her assailant had neither hurt her nor attempted to shove blood down her throat. She lay curled up on the back seat, wearing Katherine’s clothes, and wondered miserably if she even wanted Damon to find and rescue her.  
On balance, she decided that she didn’t.

She was in an abandoned car park somewhere on the outskirts of Mystic Falls, and locked in. Katherine had left one of the windows open a crack, which was thoughtful of her. So maybe she hadn’t been left to die here. That was only a vaguely comforting thought.

After what felt like an age, the back door clicked open and Katherine climbed in, holding out Elena’s vervain necklace.

“Okay, switch up.”

Elena took her necklace, swallowing, as Katherine unceremoniously stripped off her sweater. She averted her eyes, which felt as ridiculous as the first time she had done it – they looked exactly the same – but she still couldn’t watch, didn’t want to see how identical they really were. Instead, she leaned down to pull off the high-heeled boots that Katherine liked to wear.

“Come on,” said Katherine, tossing a camisole at her. “Don’t be shy.”

Elena caught it, and handed over Katherine’s jacket and top before the vampire could get too impatient. “So you’re not going to kill me?” she asked.

“Why would I do that?”

Katherine wriggled out of her jeans and Elena looked away again. “Damon thought–”

“Oh, never ask Damon what I’m up to. He’s always wrong.”

“So what are you up to? Pretending to be me again? That’s a dangerous game when Klaus wants to sacrifice me.”

“Jeans, Elena.” She obeyed, awkwardly; there wasn’t an awful lot of space with the two of them in the back seat, and Katherine continued: “I needed to go meet Elijah, and he needed to not realize it was me. He’s developed quite the soft spot for you.” She made a face. “Acted like he was practically in love with you.”

Elena gritted her teeth. “We’re helping each other. Not that you’d know anything about that.”

She wasn’t sure if the elbow that almost hit her face was deliberate or not, but Elena knew which way she would bet if she had to. Katherine had pulled on her jacket, and she lifted her hair up so that it fell around her shoulders.

“It’s called being smart,” she said. “Don’t stick around with the Original vampires who want to kill you.”

“I’ve heard this before,” Elena replied, equally unimpressed. She was dressed by now, and felt confident enough to look Katherine in the face. “You ran away. Well, guess what, Klaus is still alive and he’s still after you. I’m choosing a different path.”

Katherine laughed softly. She leaned forward again, tipping up Elena’s chin with a finger, and Elena swallowed. “There are two kinds of people in this world, Elena. Those who are victims, and those who prey on them. I refuse to be a victim.”

She was afraid of the vampire, deathly afraid: Katherine’s face was an inch from hers and her pupils were dilated, liquid eyes that gazed at her hungrily, like a cat stalking its prey. But Katherine had already said that she wasn’t going to kill her. So Elena stared straight back, and her voice remained steady. “Maybe so, but I’m not the one who’s all alone. Is it worth it? Becoming like that? Stefan and Damon hate you. Everyone who knows who you really are hates you or wants to kill you. How does it feel, being so hated?”

For a second, she thought that Katherine’s eyes had darkened and that she was about to regret her rash words. Then Katherine leaned back again, lounging over two of the seats so that Elena remained wedged in the corner. She gave Elena a calculating look – almost intrigued, in fact – and Elena wondered how long she was going to have to endure this parody of girl talk. Maybe Katherine intended to keep her until it was time for the sacrifice.

“You assume that I care,” Katherine drawled. “I really don’t. Feelings only get in the way.” She shrugged. “You’d be amazed how much easier it is to get by without other people tying you down.”

Her words provoked a memory. Elena frowned. “Elijah said something like that.”

She murmured it without thinking. She hadn’t intended to say it aloud; she wasn’t even sure when she had heard Elijah say that. It felt recent. It had been recent, hadn’t it? When had they talked about anything like that?

Katherine raised an eyebrow. “Did he? That doesn’t surprise me. He is the king of not caring.”

Elena shook her head, focusing on the present again. “It’s not true. Not for either of you. Your humanity – your feelings – whatever you want to call it. That doesn’t go away when you become a vampire.”

“Oh, so you’re the expert?”

“I’ve seen enough,” said Elena stolidly. “Elijah cared about you before you became a vampire.”

Katherine scoffed. “Before he decided to hunt me down for the next five hundred years? Elijah pretended to care about me, just like Klaus did. They told me nothing. And here we are now, centuries later, and you know everything. Yet you’re still here. My descendants have sure dumbed down over the years. I’m almost ashamed.”

“I know what I’m doing.”

Katherine looked at her then, a shrewd look that took in every inch of her, assessing her. Reading her own face on someone else’s body. Elena shivered.

“Do you?” she purred. “Are you actually planning to survive this, Elena? What’s your agenda?”

“If I had one, I wouldn’t tell you.”

“So you’re not completely stupid. What about becoming a vampire? Have you re-considered that? It looked like Damon wasn’t going to take no for an answer.”

“No, he wasn’t.” Elena twisted her mouth. “And no, I haven’t changed my mind. I need to stay as far away from Damon as possible until the sacrifice is over.”

Katherine grinned. “So I did you a favour.”

Elena didn’t answer, although they both knew that it was kind of true. She had escaped Damon forcing his blood on her. Not that being kidnapped by Katherine was a great alternative.

Katherine leaned forward. “Come on, admit it.”

“You’ll be doing me a favour if you keep me away from Damon,” Elena corrected her. “He’s probably still looking for me.”

“No problem. I don’t want you becoming a vampire. I’d rather you stayed dead.”

Elena sighed. Oddly enough, she was safe with Katherine. She was becoming so used to being kidnapped that this didn’t even faze her.

“Well, this has been an interesting conversation.” Katherine sat up, stretching fluidly. “And believe me, I didn’t expect that. But we’d better hit the road.”

She opened the car door and got out. Elena watched, but didn’t move. She knew it was pointless to make a break for it. Katherine stepped over towards the front of the car, then–

She jumped as something slammed against the car, hard. Everything shook; she heard Katherine cry out. Elena scrambled forward, and saw–

“Elijah,” she gasped.

Elijah had Katherine pinned against the car, fingers curled around her throat. He spoke without looking at her. “Excuse me, Elena. I have another doppelgänger to deal with.”

Elena climbed out of the car, far less gracefully than Katherine had, but she couldn’t wait; she wasn’t going to stay trapped. She wanted to – she didn’t know what she wanted to do, all Katherine’s words about refusing to be a victim were echoing in her ears, and she couldn’t decide if they sounded hollow or not – but there was Katherine, the tables turned, pleading for her life.

“Elijah.” Katherine choked out the name. “Listen, you need me. Both of you.”

She looked at Elena, who stood with her fists clenched, watching her. Elijah let go of Katherine’s throat, but he hadn’t stepped back. She was still trapped.

“Elena, you want to get rid of those rings, don’t you? So that you can save your friends? I know the witch who cast the spell. I can take you to him.”

Elijah raised an eyebrow. “Then tell us.”

Katherine shook her head. “I know you came here to kill me. I’ll take you to him. That’s all I’m offering.”

“She’s tricking you,” said Elena, unable to stop herself. Everything that Katherine did was a lie. “She wants to lead you to Klaus, or get one of his witches to attack you – don’t listen to her, Elijah.”

“Elena speaks sense,” said Elijah softly. “If it’s her word against yours, Katerina... who do you think I’ll choose?”

“You don’t have to choose,” another voice called, and Elena jumped.

It was a male voice, low and even, and completely strange to her. She spotted the man a few yards away, on the other side of the car park. He wore a black coat, but other than that he had no particular distinguishing features. Was he a vampire? How had he snuck up without Elijah hearing?

Elena had only a moment to take all of this in. After that, several things happened at once. She heard an awful crack, and Katherine slumped down on the tarmac like a broken doll. Elijah disappeared – no – he had blurred towards the other man and there was no way that any other vampire could match him, she thought, not unless he was another Original–

The man in the black coat held up a hand.

Elijah stopped, doubled over, a pained gasp escaping his mouth.

Elena looked at Katherine – she was completely still, head lolling at an unnatural angle. Not a threat then. Ignoring Katherine, she dashed over to Elijah, placing a steadying hand on his arm to help him up.

“Stop! You’re hurting him!”

“I’m fairly certain that he was about to hurt me,” the man replied. There was a slight strain in his voice. Now that she was closer to him, she could see the beads of sweat forming on his brow. Keeping down an Original had to take a lot out of him. “I don’t want to harm either of you. I’m here to talk.”

The man’s hand returned to his side, and Elijah straightened up. He stared at the man with narrowed eyes. Elena could almost feel the controlled fury emanating from him.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Maddox,” was the reply. “I’ve been helping out Klaus with a few spells.”

So he was one of Klaus’s witches. Elena shared a frown with Elijah; she knew that both of them were thinking the same thing. Why had Maddox approached them?

“What do you want?” she asked.

Maddox smiled. “To give you a demonstration.”

*

  
The gravel on the driveway crunched under Caroline’s feet. She winced, sure that her footsteps would be heard, and made an extra effort to tread as lightly as possible. Alaric followed behind her. He couldn’t move silently no matter how hard he tried, so Caroline resisted the urge to shush him and tiptoed over to the house entrance, where she pushed open the door and tentatively held out a hand to see if she could get inside.

No barrier met her. Well, that was something. At least Alaric didn’t have to go in by himself. She nodded at him, gesturing for him to go first before stepping inside.  
Alaric was looking around, alert and wary, already carrying a stake in his hand. The place seemed deserted, but the vase of flowers on a nearby table was fresh, and there was no dust. The house was being maintained, and to a very high standard; Carol Lockwood would have approved.

Caroline stood still, and listened. She waited ten seconds, twenty seconds, feeling Alaric’s eyes on her every moment, waiting for her to give them directions.

Then she took a breath, pointed up the stairs, and mouthed, “Ready?”

Alaric’s brow creased. He nodded, tucked the stake into his jacket, and took her arm. His hold was steady, though she could see the worry in his eyes. Caroline didn’t hesitate. In a blur of motion, she darted upstairs and burst into the room where she thought she had heard Tyler, taking Alaric with her. She heard a muffled curse – perhaps Alaric hadn’t been as ready for the sudden turn of speed as she had thought.

Only one thing struck her. The cage. And inside that cage, filthy and bedraggled...

Tyler’s voice was a husky gasp. “Caroline?”

Then someone slapped her.

It was a full-on, stinging backhand to her head, and it threw Caroline clean off her feet. Pain flared in her skull and then she crashed against the cage and it felt like every bone in her body jarred upon impact. A hand closed on her shoulder. As the stars stopped dancing in front of her eyes and the dizziness receded – thank God for vampire healing, or that blow might have killed her – she recognized Tyler’s voice at her ear.

“Caroline, you need to go! Run!”

She blinked. In front of her, Alaric had just dropped to his knees, groaning, and kneeling down beside him was...

Isobel. Of course. She was the guard.

“You shouldn’t have come here, Ric,” said Isobel softly. Alaric made no effort to resist when she jerked the stake from his hand. Caroline wondered if he was injured, too weak to fight back, or if he simply couldn’t bear to attack his ex-wife.

Caroline had no such qualms. Her head had cleared. She launched herself at Isobel, feeling Tyler’s hand slipping away from her shoulder, and the next few seconds were a whirlwind of grappling, tearing, clawing – Caroline knocked the stake out of Isobel’s hand early on and kicked it away before Isobel slammed her into a wall. Caroline broke her grip with a judicious elbow to the face which caused Isobel to cry out, blood gushing down her nose. She was on fire; all she could think was that she had to save Tyler, and she pressed her advantage by leaping on Isobel and pinning her to the ground. She had a hand around Isobel’s throat – and some dim part of her mind registered surprise; Caroline wasn’t used to being in this position, the assailant – but she could barely contain Isobel thrashing beneath her.

Then Isobel’s hands curled around her head like vices, one on each side of her face, and she drove her thumbs into Caroline’s eyes.

Everything went black. She keened like a wounded animal, wretched and fearful and full of pain. Before she knew it, she was thrown back, and a strong pair of hands – Isobel’s hands, no doubt still bloody – wrenched her arms behind her back. Caroline struggled, crying out, but Isobel had won; she couldn’t escape the older vampire’s grasp. And even if she did, she couldn’t see.

She couldn’t see, but she could hear. Sound, always loud to a vampire, magnified threefold. Her heart roared in her ears. Whimpers wracked her chest. She heard scuffling, a body slamming into metal, Tyler shouting, Alaric shouting...

Footsteps. A female voice. Something about it sounded familiar...

“Need help? Here.”

A movement in the air. Something thrown. The soft sound as wood came into contact with skin. The black was receding from Caroline’s vision, replaced with milky white, as though light was hitting her eyes again. She was healing. Did every body part just grow back? Could she be chopped into pieces and still heal? She shuddered at the thought.

Her head was yanked back; Isobel had pulled her by her hair. Caroline whimpered.

“You’re the one that got away at the party.” Isobel’s voice was flat. No emotion. The quintessential vampire. “That’s a pity. If you’d stayed away, you might have lived.”

 _I’m going to die_ , she thought. _For real this time. I’m going to die._

She had imagined that it would be worth it to die saving someone she loved. If she had to go, that was the best way, right? But she didn’t feel anything. She just didn’t want to die. She didn’t.

“Please,” she whispered.

*

  
In the Gilbert house, Jenna and Jeremy waited. And waited. And made frantic calls, none of which were answered – until Damon gave her the curt news that Katherine had kidnapped Elena and that he had no idea where she was.

“But what is she–” Jenna started.

He cut her off. She stared at the blank screen of her phone, breathing hard. Obviously he would be searching for Elena, but he couldn’t waste five seconds to fill her in on what was going on – never mind that she could be an extra pair of eyes and ears. Never mind that Elena was her niece and that she had sworn to help.  
Screw Damon Salvatore.

She stalked into the living room where Jeremy was waiting for her.

“Okay,” she said. “That’s it. I am not waiting around in this house any longer. Jeremy, go fetch the crossbow.”

Jeremy didn’t need to be told twice. He headed upstairs while Jenna shoved her phone into her pocket and grabbed the pepper spray from the kitchen. It was meant to be a defence in case some asshole tried to assault her, but she had replaced the pepper with vervain. That of course made it useless against human attackers, but Jenna wasn’t expecting any problems on that front. She strode over to the front door – she could at least act purposeful, even if she didn’t know where to begin looking for Elena. Even if everyone thought she was a liability. She’d put a dagger in Elijah’s heart, hadn’t she? She wasn’t useless.

Jenna opened the door, and stopped dead.

Someone was waiting for her. A man, blond, blue-eyed; she might have thought that the dimples in his cheeks were cute, but his smirk was too self-assured for that. She immediately pegged him as a jackass. Which right now probably meant vampire. Which probably meant...

Jenna swallowed.

Klaus gave her a pearly grin. “Afternoon, Jenna.”


	30. Say Goodbye

Jenna sprayed the vervain in his face.

The reaction was instantaneous. Klaus reared back, hissing in pain; there was a sizzling sound as the vervain ate through his skin like acid. His hands flew to his face.

She planted her feet squarely behind the threshold and pointed the vervain spray at him like a gun.

“Leave.”

She was amazed that her voice remained steady. Particularly when Klaus rubbed his eyes, shaking his head, and lowered his hands to reveal completely unmarred skin. He had already healed, but that didn’t stop him from glaring at her.

“Is that,” Klaus growled, “any way to treat a guest? I mean you no harm, Jenna.”

“You mean Elena harm.” She was shaking, but at least as much with rage as terror. “I said leave.”

His nostrils flared and for a moment she was afraid that he was going to pull out a knife and throw it at her, anything to get past the invite barrier, but something distracted him. Footsteps coming down the stairs. She glanced back, and saw Jeremy hurrying towards them with a rucksack slung over his shoulder. It would be full of anti-vampire weapons, but Klaus didn’t know that. Unfortunately he couldn’t fail to notice the large crossbow that Jeremy lifted up to point at him.

There was a twang, a hiss. Something shot past her. Jeremy had fired, and though Jenna barely registered it, Klaus had. The stake appeared in his hand; he had sidestepped and caught it. Jenna couldn’t breathe. The urge to slam the door in his face was strong – but then what would he do?

Unexpectedly, Klaus laughed.

He took a step back and held up his hands. She watched, nonplussed.

“So hostile,” said Klaus. “Come now, just bring the girl to me quietly, and we’ll have none of this unpleasantness.”

“She’s not here,” said Jenna.

Klaus’s voice was controlled, but there was a definite brittle edge to his tone. “Then where is she?”

“She’s with me, brother.”

Klaus turned, and Jenna watched Elijah step forward, holding Elena. They had appeared out of nowhere – well, vampires had a way of doing that. Elena was caught in Elijah’s grasp, helpless. Her breath came in short, frightened gasps. Jenna didn’t know how to react. Had Elijah tricked them? Or was this all part of the plan? Klaus had to believe that Elijah was holding Elena prisoner.

But the situation would look just the same if that were true.

“Elena!” said Jeremy, dropping the crossbow to his side as he pushed past her.

“Jeremy – don’t step over the–”

That was Elena’s anxious cry, but Jenna reacted in time. She grabbed Jeremy by his rucksack and pulled him back, earning a yelp from him. They were still safe. Inside the house. Elena was only feet away from safety...

Jenna swallowed. Did she trust Elijah? That was what it came down to. Whether to let Elijah hand Elena over, or... She didn’t know what. Stake them?

A lazy, satisfied smile spread over Klaus’s face as he regarded Elena. “Thank you, Elijah.” He twirled the stake between his fingers. “Well, that’s all I came for. So I’ll leave you two in peace. Jenna. Jeremy.”

He gave each of them a nod as he spoke. Jenna tried to catch Elijah’s eyes, hoping that he could give her some hint – how had he found Elena? What had happened to Katherine? But even when Elijah’s gaze met hers, she couldn’t read him at all.

Klaus stepped towards Elena. _I could shoot him in the back right now_ , Jenna thought. Point blank range – she couldn’t miss, even with the risk of Elena standing right there next to Elijah.

Her murderous thoughts were interrupted when Klaus plunged the stake into Elijah’s heart.

Elijah gasped. Elena cried out too, almost as though she felt the stake in her chest. Jenna could only watch open-mouthed, not daring to step beyond the threshold of the Gilbert house.

Klaus held his brother and gently lowered him to the ground. Jenna couldn’t see Elijah’s face, his features turning grey as Elena stepped back in horror, as Klaus stooped over him. But she could hear him, his last gasp as he swore Niklaus’s name.  
Klaus gave his brother a few parting words. “This is what you’ll get if you interfere with my plan. Only next time, it’ll be a dagger through your heart. Sleep well, Elijah.”

He dropped the corpse to the floor and straightened up, wiping his hands.

“Elena,” said Jeremy suddenly – and Jenna didn’t know what had possessed him, what he was thinking, but he was struggling against her, crying out his sister’s name. “Elena!”

Elena had backed away along the porch, shaking her head. “It’ll be okay,” she said, her voice quavering. “Stay inside. I’ll be okay.”

Her eyes met Jenna’s, shining with tears, and Jenna nodded. She wanted nothing more than to run out there and tear Klaus’s head off – but she wasn’t a vampire. Vervain, crossbows, stakes; none of it worked unless they could catch the vampire by surprise. And where Klaus was concerned, none of it would put him down permanently.  
Klaus walked over to Elena, laying a possessive hand on her shoulder. He turned towards them, Elena shuddering beneath his touch.

“Well?” he said. “Any last goodbyes?”

Jenna’s eyes welled up. She wasn’t even pretending – whatever plan they had with the witches seemed far-off, doomed to fail. Jeremy was shaking, and she held him tight, even though she wanted a parent herself to embrace her, to tell her that everything would be okay...

“I love you.” Elena was trembling. “Always remember that.”

“I love you,” Jeremy choked back.

Jenna added to the chorus, her voice a whisper: “Love you, Elena.”

Then they were gone.

*

  
It was something to watch, Jonas Martin’s power. Bonnie had felt it directed at herself before, and that had been terrible. To have her power taken away from her... She shuddered at the memory. No, she still didn’t like being around Jonas.

But with the power of the dead witches fuelling them, they were unstoppable together. Bonnie blasted open the doors. Jonas spoke a single word, and every person in the room flew into the air and hung there, suspended by invisible strings. Alaric, his knees bent awkwardly, a look of comical bewilderment on his face. Caroline, blood running down her face, curled up in the foetal position. Next to her, Isobel, a stake frozen in her hand. Tyler – oh God – Tyler, inside a cage, his head bloody where he had hit the iron bars at the top.

And finally, Greta, her mouth open but no sound coming out, finger pointed at them impotently. Whatever magic she had couldn’t fight against her father.

For a moment, Bonnie felt invincible. Like this, they could take on Klaus. Hold him with magic and blast him to smithereens. They could do anything.

She was startled by Luka rushing past her. “Greta!”

Jonas snapped his fingers, and his floating victims came crashing down, but he was there to catch Greta. And, Bonnie saw, Stefan was there to catch Caroline. He laid her down, said something that Bonnie didn’t catch, then turned to grab hold of Isobel.

For her part, Bonnie hurried over to Tyler. She spoke a few words, heard the lock on the cage catch, and pulled it open.

“Bonnie,” Tyler gasped. “You–”

“We need to get you out,” said Bonnie firmly. “Come on.”

She half-pulled, half-dragged him out of the cage, wrinkling her nose at the smell of days-old sweat. Despite being both a varsity athlete and a werewolf, he seemed weak, and he leaned on her heavily as she tried to steady him.

But once he’d scrambled out, he only had eyes for one person. “Caroline needs help.”  
Bonnie let him go, her attention caught by the scene on the other side of the room. The Martin family reunion. Jonas embraced his daughter tightly, holding on to her as though she was the most precious thing in the world. Luka’s eyes shone with tears, but he couldn’t stop smiling. Bonnie felt a pang as she watched them.

In the middle of the floor, Alaric was running a hand through his hair, looking like he had a hangover. Caroline and Tyler couldn’t seem to decide which of them needed comforting the most and had compromised by clinging to each other like two lovebirds caught in a storm. Stefan was caught in a deadlock with Isobel, pointing a stake at her heart. But time was ticking. Her skin prickled, and she wasn’t sure if it was a premonition or if she was just aware that Klaus could return at any time. Matt was waiting for them outside. They were all in danger here.

Bonnie raised her voice. “We need to go.” She looked at Greta. “Are you with us?”

“She’s with us,” said Jonas, his arm still wrapped around his daughter.

Greta’s expression was unreadable. “What are you going to do with them?” she asked, raising an eyebrow in Isobel’s direction.

Good question. They hadn’t come here to rescue Isobel. She was an enemy. They should stake her right now and have done with it. But Bonnie was aware that Alaric was standing right there, unable to look his ex-wife directly in the eye. He didn’t answer. Neither Caroline nor Tyler spoke. And she found that she couldn’t bring herself to say it either.

Stefan gave the verdict. “I’d kill her, but... She’s Elena’s mother. So I guess we’re taking both of them with us.”

Isobel rolled her eyes. “That’s nice of you.”

Something about her reaction bothered Bonnie. She didn’t seem to care what Stefan intended to do with her. Was it because Isobel had been compelled, so all of her actions were out of her control? Or did she know something that they didn’t?

“Come on,” said Stefan, “before Klaus comes back.”

“No,” said Jonas.

Everything stopped. For a moment, Bonnie wasn’t sure that she had heard correctly.

“They stay,” Jonas said, pointing at Tyler and Isobel. “They’re needed for the sacrifice.”

Caroline made a disbelieving sound. “No! We came here to rescue them. I’m not leaving without Tyler.”

“Then you’ll be here when Klaus returns,” said Jonas, with a terrible air of finality.

It was the same argument that Bonnie had made to Stefan earlier. Klaus had to have his sacrifice victims, even if one of them was Tyler. They had to allow that to happen in order to stop him. But now that she was here, having seen Tyler, she didn’t think that she could abandon him. His face had been so grateful when she had pulled him out of that hideous cage. He was staring around at all of them, the picture of confusion.

Bonnie made her decision, stepping forward. “No. We’re going whether you like it or not.”

Caroline nodded in agreement, her face mutinous. She helped Tyler up, Stefan started forward with Isobel – and the Martins reacted. Luka reached her before Bonnie could do anything, and she let out a gasp that nobody could hear when he clamped his hand over her mouth.

“I’m sorry,” Luka whispered.

She elbowed him hard, trying to wrench free, but this wasn’t like in the Grill when she had effectively rendered him helpless before dragging him away. Luka wasn’t much taller than she was, but he was stronger, and he wouldn’t let go.

Jonas uttered two sharp words and Stefan released Isobel as though she had shocked him. The same happened to Caroline; she cried out as she was thrown back. Tyler scrambled after her, but something stopped him. Invisible forces were at work here; Bonnie could sense them all, threads being woven to keep them apart.

Had she thought that she was invincible? _Look how long that lasted_ , she thought.

Alaric started towards her. “Hey!”

She felt Luka’s hold on her tighten. “Don’t,” he said.

Alaric stopped, swallowing. Slowly, he backed away and raised his hands.

“Out, all of you,” Jonas ordered. “Nobody has to get hurt.”

Again, Bonnie looked at Greta. She had done nothing, said nothing. She had been standing by all this time... why?

Whatever the reason, she couldn’t do anything about it now. She gave a tiny nod to Alaric.

“All right,” said Alaric finally.

Stefan helped Caroline up, and he practically had to drag her over to join Alaric. Luka released Bonnie and nudged her forward. One by one, they filed out. Bonnie was last, and she glanced back to get a final glimpse of them. Isobel’s hand curled claw-like over Tyler’s shoulder; he wasn’t going anywhere. He looked crushed.

Jonas, Luka and Greta followed her, blocking her view. For a fleeting moment, she caught a glimpse of triumph on Greta’s face. Bonnie’s stomach sank.

“I’m sorry,” said Luka again. “I hope you understand.”

“I understand all right,” she shot back at him. “I’m just not sure you do.”

She turned her back on them, hurrying downstairs with the rest. Caroline was already plotting to go back.

“We can take them,” she said. “Tyler wouldn’t give up on me; I’m not giving up on him.”

Bonnie caught her arm. The situation was at a tipping point, and she didn’t think that any of the others realized that. “We’re not giving up. We’re picking our battles, okay?”

“And we need Greta to remove these rings,” Stefan reminded her. “Bonnie’s right–”

He went still. Caroline too had flinched, and Bonnie and Alaric exchanged a bewildered look. She could see the Martins descending the staircase behind them, but that couldn’t be what had startled them. They hadn’t done anything yet.

“Someone’s coming,” said Stefan.

He didn’t need to say any more. Caroline held out her hand to Alaric, who was nearest to her. He understood and took it at once. Stefan did the same for Bonnie, but she shook her head.

“You guys go. I’ll stay with the Martins.”

His brow creased. “You sure?”

She nodded, trying not to show her fear. “I’ll be fine. Trust me.”

She gave both of them – Caroline and Stefan – an imploring look, trying to communicate her meaning without words. She knew what she was doing. She hoped she knew what she was doing. She hoped that Klaus wouldn’t simply kill her on a whim.  
The second it took for them to nod back at her felt agonizingly long, but they did, and a moment later both had gone, taking Alaric with them.

Not a moment too soon.

“Greta!” a cheery voice called. “What’s all this then? Did you invite over some guests?”

*

  
So there was a dead vampire on her porch. Jenna took a deep breath, composing herself. Her eyes were red and puffy, and next to her Jeremy didn’t look in much better condition. But she was the parent.

“Okay,” she said. “We’d better... bring him inside the house.”

Between them, they dragged Elijah’s corpse inside, though not before looking around in case Klaus decided to show his face again. Stepping outside the boundaries of the house made them vulnerable. Still, it was either that or risk the neighbours seeing something they really didn’t need to see.

A couple of minutes later, there was a dead vampire on her living room floor instead.

Jenna looked at him. “Do we pull out the stake? If we do, he’ll wake up, right?”

Jeremy ran a hand through his hair. “I think he’d wake up anyway.”

Well, in that case they might as well pull it out. Jenna knelt down and yanked the stake out, wrinkling her nose at the sight of him. Elijah didn’t look so pretty when he was dead. Not that she expected corpses to be fresh-faced in general.

She sighed as she slumped down on the couch – keeping Elijah in sight, she didn’t want any surprises – and looked over at Jeremy. He still had the rucksack full of weapons, and he had propped the crossbow against his chair.

“We have to work with him,” she said. “He’s our only chance of making sure that Elena doesn’t...”

Jeremy frowned. “What if he compelled her? We only trust him because Elena does, and I’m not sure I trust her judgement at the best of times.”

She shook her head. “Do we have a choice?”

She didn’t get an answer, because Elijah chose that moment to wake up. He coughed, his skin slowly returning to normal, and blinked as he sat up, looking around in confusion. His eyes caught hers.

“Jenna.”

“Welcome back,” said Jenna. She held up the stake she’d pulled out of him. “Just so you know, I’m armed and dangerous.”

“Then I’ll treat you with the appropriate courtesy.” He got up, brushing down his jacket, and frowned at the hole in it. Obviously his suit was expensive. “Well... where were we?”

“You just handed over Elena to Klaus,” Jeremy reminded him, tone accusing.

“Yes...” His expression turned grave. “Then it is high time we met up with the witches. Would you like to join us?”

*

  
Bonnie could guess what was about to happen. She took a deep breath and faced Klaus – and gasped.

“Elena!”

It shouldn’t have surprised her. Klaus had gathered all his sacrifice victims together. Of course he had disappeared to fetch the last one. He was holding Elena’s hand, fingers interweaved with hers, and though Elena was keeping him at arm’s length, they still looked strangely like a couple.

Elena’s eyes widened. “Bonnie!”

Bonnie swallowed a response when she felt Klaus’s gaze land on her. He smiled, and she felt horribly afraid. This was the first time she had actually encountered him face-to-face. Her first, foolish thought was that he looked younger than she had expected.

A movement at the corner of her eye caught her attention. Greta was coming over to greet Klaus.

“We had some surprise visitors,” she said.

“So I see,” Klaus murmured. He kissed Greta on the cheek when she approached, and Greta took his free arm, turning to face her family. She could not have more clearly stated her alliances.

Luka’s voice sounded choked. “Greta.”

“Hear us out,” said Jonas. “We mean you no harm. We only want Greta.”

“I should hope not,” said Klaus softly. He looked at Greta. “Who are our guests?”

“My family,” said Greta. “My father. And my brother.”

“Ah, I see. Come to rescue your little girl from the big bad vampire.” Klaus grinned. “Do you want to leave with them, Greta? I won’t stop you.”

Greta seemed to consider it for a moment, tilting her head back and forth. Then she shook her head. “I’ll never leave your side, love.”

While they were talking, Bonnie caught Elena’s eye. She smiled at her friend, trying to convey as much reassurance as she could. They were going to save her, and Tyler. Everything was going to be okay. But Elena shook her head minutely, glancing at Greta.

 _Not her_ , she mouthed.

Bonnie frowned. _What?_

Elena held up her hand, her gaze flicking down for a moment, then back to Bonnie. She gave a quick nod, her eyebrows raised, as if to say, _get it_? Bonnie didn’t get it. She frowned.

Their silent conversation was interrupted by Klaus. He’d offered to show the Martins out, and Bonnie flinched as both of them moved past her. Luka was pleading with his sister and Jonas looked about ready to kill Klaus himself, but maybe he didn’t want to risk it with both of his children there. Maybe he was just devastated; she caught a glimpse of his expression when he looked back, and saw the pain deep in his eyes. More than pain. Betrayal.

Bonnie swallowed. She’d expected this to happen, anticipated it – deep down in her gut she had never trusted Greta, never believed that she would choose their side. The Martin family though... What would they do now?

She stared at Greta, who watched her family go by with no sign of regret on her face. The other witch had taken Elena’s arm in place of Klaus.

Bonnie couldn’t help herself. “He could kill them!” she said. “Don’t you care at all?”

“She’s right,” said Elena. “They’re your family, Greta. They only wanted to help you.”

Greta arched an eyebrow at her captive. “No, they wanted to save me. They were wasting their time.”

“What do you think Klaus is going to do for you?” Bonnie asked. “He’s using you. He needs you to break the curse – that’s it. The Originals don’t care about people like us. It’s our powers they want.”

She was thinking of Abby as she spoke, how Elijah had used her, how she had been unable to return home for fear that Klaus would take out his wrath on her family. She was almost surprised at the strength of the hatred in her voice. She hated them. All of them.

“Well, that’s a little unfair.” Klaus had returned. “You and I get along very well, don’t we, Greta?”

Greta’s smile was that of a satisfied cat as Klaus took Elena’s arm again.

“Go upstairs and fetch the others, would you?” he said. “It’s time to prepare.”

Greta nodded. Bonnie watched her go with her heart thumping in her chest. Now it was just her, Klaus, and Elena. Klaus bent close to Elena and whispered something that she couldn’t hear, but whatever answer she gave seemed to satisfy him. Then he turned his attention to her. Bonnie lifted her chin defiantly as Klaus approached her.

“Bonnie,” he greeted her. Elena was still caught at his side, and Bonnie resisted the urge to tear her away, to run. “Mystic Falls’ resident witch. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

She steeled herself, fists clenched. “I came to help the Martins.”

“Did you?” He looked at her searchingly; she could sense his sharp intelligence focused on her. But she was a witch. Whatever else Klaus could do, he couldn’t get into her head.

Klaus turned to Elena again, lifting up her chin so that she was forced to look at him. “What is she doing here, sweetheart?”

It was then Bonnie realized that Elena wasn’t wearing her necklace. And if she hadn’t taken vervain recently, that meant she was vulnerable to Klaus’s compulsion. She held her breath.

“I don’t know,” said Elena.

His hand went to Elena’s neck, tracing the line of her collarbone where the necklace would have been, then cupped her throat. Elena barely flinched, though again it took all of Bonnie’s strength not to do anything. _We pick our battles_ , she thought. _We choose the time and place._

“And the Salvatores?” Klaus went on. “What are they doing?”

Elena didn’t blink. “They’re probably looking for me.”

“Hmm.” Klaus looked back at Bonnie. “Well, you’d better tell them that Elena is safe with me, hadn’t you? Off you go.”

She didn’t need telling twice. Bonnie stumbled past both of them, averting her eyes as she felt the tears well up. She wished that she could have hugged Elena goodbye. Instead, she wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. Shoulders hunched, she hurried out of the house, not daring to look back.

She was halfway down the driveway when she spotted the car outside and remembered. She broke into a run, tearing open the gate as she practically flung herself at the car.

“Matt! Matt – oh God...”

His blond head was slumped against the window. A trickle of blood stained his temple. She yanked open the door and cried out in horror as he collapsed on the ground in front of her. His head lolled at an unnatural angle, clearly showing the gaping wound on his neck. His eyes stared up at the sky, lifeless.

Bonnie fell to her knees and shook him, crying out his name, but the moment her trembling fingers found his neck, she knew. There was no pulse. His throat had been torn out.

Her chest felt tight. How had this happened? She looked around, back at the house she had barely escaped from, and a terrible sense of vertigo overtook her. For a moment, she couldn’t breathe. She wanted to throw up. Somehow she managed to get up and totter a few steps down the street – she didn’t know what she was doing, where she was going, all she knew was that she could smell the blood on his body and on her hands and she had to get away...

“Stefan,” she called weakly. “Somebody... help.”

A hand caught her arm, steadying her. She felt the touch of leather against her skin, and then blue eyes stared into her own with surprising tenderness.

“Let’s get you out of here,” said Damon.

*

  
Katherine opened her eyes. Good, she thought. Wherever she was, she was still alive – as much as a vampire could be. She tried to sit up and felt chains digging into her wrists. Her eyes darted around, quickly assessing her surroundings. She was in a dark cell, sitting on an iron chair that seemed designed to be as uncomfortable as possible. The smell of vervain was strong. It was in the air somehow. She tried not to breathe.

The cell door creaked open.

Katherine couldn’t hide her surprise. “Sheriff Forbes?”

Liz Forbes stepped inside, expression grim. “You’re awake.”

She frowned, struggling with her chains. “Where am I? What am I doing here?”

“You’re in jail,” Liz answered. “Do I really need to say why? You’ve murdered countless people. You tried to kill me. You turned my daughter into a vampire.”

Katherine gritted her teeth. The sheriff was so infuriatingly literal. “The last thing I remember, I was with Elijah... Did he turn me in?”

Of all the things she had expected Elijah to do, handing her over to the police was not one of them.

“No. Maddox did.”

She laughed softly. “What are you going to do, charge me for my crimes?”

Liz shook her head. “I’m keeping you detained. By tomorrow, you’ll be dead. I’d stake you myself, but you’re here as proof.”

“Proof?” A feeling of foreboding stole over her. Katherine looked down. Yes, there on her hand the ring still glinted. She hadn’t been able to get rid of it. “You mean when Klaus is killed.”

Liz’s face was hard. “When he goes, you’ll go, and this town will be safe again.”

She rolled her eyes. “Apart from all the other vampires running around.”

“Caroline will be fine,” said Liz, her voice strained. “I’ll take care of her.”

“And Damon?”

“He’ll help. He’s head of the council.”

Katherine paused. The irony was almost too much. “You don’t know, do you?”

For the first time, Liz looked unsure. “Know what?”

“Who do you think turned Caroline? Yes, I killed her, but it wasn’t my blood that brought her back. It was Damon’s.”

Liz hesitated, but then she shook her head, her mouth a thin line. “You’re lying.”

She could tell that her words had shaken Liz, however much the sheriff tried to hide it, so she pressed on. “The Salvatore brothers are vampires. And they’re not the only ones.” Katherine shrugged. “I could tell you who else, but you have me chained up, so. That limits my desire to be helpful.”

Liz’s nostrils flared. She stepped forward. “You can tell me one thing. How do you walk in the sun?”

Katherine smiled. “Magic.”

“This room was designed to hold vampires,” said Liz. “The ventilation? It’s full of vervain. And I can turn it up.”

She was unimpressed. “Is that a threat?”

Liz moved over to the side of the room and pulled a lever. Instantly there was a hiss and the smell of vervain became stronger. Katherine bit her lip to stop from crying out. The vervain was condensing in the air, tiny droplets sizzling on her skin, and it hurt. Even her long built-up immunity to the poison couldn’t stop it burning her.

“How do you walk in the sun?” Liz repeated.

“Ask the Salvatores,” Katherine breathed. “Here’s a tip: look at what they’re wearing.”

“What do you mean?”

She shook her head. “That’s all you’re getting. Like I said, I don’t feel like being particularly helpful to those who capture and torture me.”

Liz stared at her. “I hope you rot,” she said finally, and she walked out, shutting the cell door shut behind her.

Katherine heard the click of the lock – trapped again. She closed her eyes. The vervain was beginning to overwhelm her. She needed to get out fast, before she was too weakened and befuddled to do anything. Grimacing, she tugged at the chains again. They were heavy and strong. But Katherine was over five hundred years old, and vervain did not hurt her like ordinary vampires. Had the humans who created this prison been prepared for her?

She didn’t think so.

*

  
It was dark, Elena thought fuzzily. Dark and cold, and damp... She was outside, on the ground. She shifted a hand, and felt leaf litter brushing against her skin. A light breeze stirred the branches of the trees around her.

Elena drew in a breath.

Klaus had taken her. He’d asked her how she was feeling and then Greta had done something... put her to sleep. Maybe that was why she felt so drowsy. But before that... There had been Bonnie, and Maddox and Katherine...

Now she was in an empty clearing. Or maybe not empty; was that a figure lying prone a few feet away? She couldn’t tell. Before her eyes could adjust, a circle of flames leapt up around her, surrounding her on all sides with blazing heat.

Klaus’s voice spoke out of the darkness. “Hello, my lovelies. Are we ready?”


	31. The Ritual

“Bonnie?” Caroline rushed over to her friend at once. “Are you okay?”

Bonnie was shaking, her face streaked with tears. Damon had her arm slung over his shoulder, supporting her as she stumbled inside. He looked grim. Caroline stared at them both. She couldn’t see any injuries on Bonnie, but she could smell blood.

She licked her lips nervously. “Where’s Matt?”

Damon answered. “Sorry, Caroline. He’s gone.”

It was the way he said her name that really hit it home. No trace of sarcasm, no insulting nicknames. Just the truth. Matt was gone. She looked at Bonnie, who nodded.

“I’m sorry. I – I couldn’t stop it. When I found him, he was already...”

She felt weak-kneed, like she was about to collapse. The Salvatore boarding house seemed to spin around her.

“No,” she whispered. “No...”

This was her fault.

Distantly, she heard Bonnie say, “Are the witches here?” Damon nodded in response and Bonnie moved away... There was activity going on around her, but Caroline barely registered any of it. She felt dazed.

She hiccupped. It was a stupid reaction, she thought furiously, not even proper tears, but it felt like she had a frog in her throat. Then Stefan came up to her and asked, “Are you okay?” After that, she couldn’t contain it.

The next few minutes passed in a blur. First she could do nothing but cry, sobbing her heart out in front of the fire while Stefan held her. Then her guilty feelings poured out as words.

“We should have gone back for him! I left him there when I knew he had no protection against Klaus, no ring, nothing, he’s just a human – was just a human – Matt...” She sobbed his name again and again, like a prayer, like an apology. “Matt...”

Stefan bore all of this patiently: her messy sobs, tears and mascara all over his shirt as she buried her face into his shoulder. He stroked her hair, his voice calm and soothing, until eventually her tears ran out.

“This isn’t your fault,” he said firmly. “It’s Klaus. Klaus did this, and he’s going to pay for it. We’ll make sure he never hurts anyone else.”

“I wasn’t even there,” she whispered. “He was dying, and I wasn’t even there.”

Stefan was silent for a moment. “I know how that feels,” he said. “To lose someone you love, and not be able to do anything about it.”

She looked up at him, sniffing. “When?”

Again, he paused before answering, measuring every word. “Katherine. Back when we thought she had died in the church. We tried to save her, and we failed. By the time we woke up, she had already burned.”

“Except she hadn’t,” said Caroline.

He nodded.

The fire flickered in the hearth. Her thoughts darted around wildly, as fast as the thrumming of her heart. She had been too overwhelmed with emotion to think through everything, but gradually her senses were returning to her.

“When does the sacrifice happen?”

“It’s already started,” Stefan answered heavily.

She sat up. As comforting as it had been to have Stefan holding her, she couldn’t forget why they had gone to Klaus’s hideout in the first place. A renewed sense of determination flared in her eyes. “Tyler. If we don’t save him, Matt will have died for nothing – we _have_ to save him.”

“I know.” He spoke faster, the emotion rising in his voice. “Every minute that passes, Elena is closer to dying. But we need all the witches to kill Klaus, and Jonas and Luka aren’t here. Elijah’s disappeared too.”

She made a distressed noise. They’d lost the Martins as allies – and that meant she’d lost her chance of protecting her house, protecting her mother, against Klaus. Without them, Klaus would sacrifice both Tyler and Elena, and then they were all doomed. He’d be unstoppable.

“We have to find them.”

He nodded. “Bonnie’s on it.”

“Bonnie.” She exhaled. Bonnie was always on it. She had lost Matt too – witnessed him dead – but that hadn’t stopped her. Caroline wished she could be half as strong as Bonnie. She gave a tiny smile. “Yeah... She always pulls through.”

Stefan smiled back. His eyes crinkled when he did that, full of concern, soft and genuine. “You always pull through,” he said, gently wiping the tears from her eyes. “Come on.”

*

  
Damon answered the door. “You’re late.”

“My apologies,” said Elijah pleasantly. “I got held up.”

He swept into the house, Jenna and Jeremy trailing behind him. Damon looked as though he wanted to stop them, but Jenna raised an eyebrow at him and he let them pass. She suppressed a grin. Accompanying Elijah had its advantages.

“So,” said Elijah, immediately taking centre stage in the middle of the room, “are we all prepared?”

Looking around, somehow Jenna didn’t think so. There was Caroline, sitting next to Stefan with her hands folded into her lap, her face pale and drawn even for a vampire. A few seconds later, Alaric walked in and collapsed into one of the armchairs with a damp cloth pressed to his forehead. He must have been injured. What had happened? She gave Jeremy a sideways glance and took a step closer to him.

“No,” was Damon’s response. “Your witches betrayed us, Elijah. Jonas and Luka got the jump on us. They tried to rescue Greta, she didn’t want to be rescued, so they took off.”

“Don’t forget Matt,” said Alaric heavily, prompting a tearful sniff from Caroline.

Jenna frowned, confused. “Matt Donovan?”

Stefan broke the news. “Matt’s gone.”

“Gone?” Jeremy repeated, stepping forward. “You don’t mean... dead?”

The looks on everyone’s faces answered that question.

Damon waved a hand. “Not important right now. The point is Elena is about to be sacrificed as we speak, we’re three witches short, we’re still wearing the Klaus death rings, and Katherine is nowhere to be found.” He poured a glass of what looked like whiskey and gulped it down. Jenna had a feeling it wasn’t his first drink of the day.

She was too overwhelmed to speak. Apparently they had missed a lot. Matt was Elena’s ex-boyfriend – he was a nice kid. Jenna had met him several times. When she had been recovering from a knife wound in her stomach, he had accompanied Elena and Jeremy to the hospital to pick her up and helped to take care of her. Matt was probably the last person she would associate with the supernatural goings-on in Mystic Falls, so how he had gotten caught up in this mess, she didn’t know.

“Thank you for summing that up, Damon,” said Elijah. “I believe I can help.”

Just like that, he had taken control. All eyes were on him, Damon sceptical, Jeremy still openly suspicious, but everyone was listening. Jenna folded her arms. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about Elijah. But she thought that she had been right about one thing: they needed him.

“Katerina is safely contained,” Elijah began. “Sheriff Forbes has her in custody. As for the witches, I can contact the Martins. Where are the other witches?”

Damon jerked his head. “This way.”

That was the cue for all the vampires except for Caroline to disperse, leaving only Alaric, Jeremy, Caroline and Jenna in the room. The normal people, Jenna thought wryly, although they had all long since gone way past normal. They were caught up in the supernatural, but still not important enough to take part in the plan. It made her miss Katherine, weirdly. Katherine, who was locked up with no one to save her.

She sighed. “Well, good to know everything’s under control.”

Jeremy snorted. “Yeah, right.”

She watched Jeremy waver for a moment before he decided to go over to Caroline, who looked lost and alone. She knew they were thinking of Matt. First John, then Matt... It seemed like in this war between vampires, the only people who died were the humans caught up in the conflict.

Jeremy murmured something to Caroline, and then the pair of them stood up and exited the room. Leaving her alone with Alaric. Jenna caught her breath. Oh. She hadn’t thought of that.

Alaric glanced up at her and cleared his throat awkwardly. At least he’d done that first. She’d been thinking about it.

“Well,” he said, and then couldn’t seem to think of anything to add.

Jenna took pity on him and stepped closer. “Are you hurt? I thought vampire blood could heal people. You’d think one of them would offer to help.”

He ran a hand through his hair where she could see a bruise on the side of his head. “Damon did, but I refused. It’s nothing. A few bruises and scrapes. I’d rather clear my head with a drink.”

“Because that’ll help.”

“Well... Maybe I didn’t want a clear head.”

She frowned. “What happened, Ric?”

He told her, in a halting, often vague manner, but not because he was trying to hide anything. No, she realized. It was because he felt guilty. Alaric had been at the scene and Matt had ended up dead.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

He nodded, expression bleak.

Jenna hesitated. She felt genuine sympathy for him, for the first time in a long time. But she didn’t know what else to say. They were both lost. She sat down next to him and clasped her hands in her lap. “So... what do we do now?”

“Whatever we can,” he said.

Not much, she thought, guessing that was his implication too. She shook her head. “You know, Elijah brought us here. I brought a whole pile of weapons. I thought we might be able to help, but I guess not. I don’t know why he bothered.”

Alaric shrugged. “Maybe he likes you.”

She laughed out of sheer surprise. “Right.”

“If I’m being honest... I was jealous,” Alaric admitted.

“Well, we did kiss.” Dear God. It was like her brain short-circuited sometimes. Jenna shook her head and back-tracked fast. “Uh, that was after I broke up with you. And I killed him right after, so you probably don’t want me as a girlfriend anyway.”

He laughed. “I finally get to tell you... That was pretty amazing. Killing an Original vampire. That takes guts.”

“Well, I hear you did it first.”

“Well, I hear I’m stupid. And reckless.”

She smiled despite herself. She had forgotten how warm Alaric’s eyes could be. Still, they were dancing around all the real issues. It was fun, but she couldn’t keep it up.

“Ric,” she said slowly. “I’m still mad at you for lying to me. I don’t know if I can get past that. Even if it’s true that Katherine compelled me, that’s still a big deal for me.”

His expression sobered. “I know.”

“I get why you did it,” she went on, trying to keep her voice steady, “and why Elena and Jeremy lied too. I know you thought you were protecting me.” That was as close as she could come to forgiving him. She had to forgive Elena and Jeremy because... well, they were family. They looked out for each other no matter what.

“We tried,” he said. “We tried to stop this, to protect Elena... The one thing you can count on is that Damon and Stefan will do anything to keep her safe. So whatever goes down tonight... They’ll die before they’ll let her be killed.”

Jenna nodded. She had gotten that by now. Both brothers were in love with Elena, both brothers had a single-minded drive to protect her. She was sure that Elijah was going to take full advantage of that. Whatever his plan was, it involved witches and vampires. Not her. So she would have to find some other way to be useful.

Just like that, the answer came to her.

“Ric,” she said, “can I ask you a favour?”

“Sure. Anything, Jenna.”

“Look out for Jeremy,” she said. “I – I think there’s something I can do, but I don’t want to leave him unprotected. Keep him safe for me.”

This was almost too blatantly manipulative, she thought. She wasn’t great in that department, but Alaric seemed too eager to win her favour to notice.

“I will,” he said. “If that’s all I can do here, I will. What are you going to do?”

She stood up. “Something that will help Elena.”

*

  
There were three circles. One for each sacrifice. Elena tried to dredge up what Elijah had told her about the ritual. Klaus must sacrifice a werewolf, a vampire, and the doppelgänger, in that order. With her death, the curse would be broken. He would become a hybrid.

She scrambled to her feet, trying not to breathe in the smoke of the fire. She was in the middle ring. In the left hand ring, sitting with her hands wrapped around her knees, was Isobel.

As if she could sense Elena’s gaze, her mother lifted her head. “Hello, Elena.” Her voice was dry, cracked.

She couldn’t respond. What was there to say? Elena shook her head, backing away. To her right...

“Tyler,” she gasped.

He was lying down in the grass, breathing heavily. Sweat glistened on his skin, and as she watched, he jerked and writhed in pain. But he had seen her.

“Elena,” he whispered. “They – they never told me about this part. The sacrifice. I met a girl just like you. Katherine. I saw a picture of her–” He jerked again, crying out, and Elena had to turn away in distress – she could _hear_ his bones snapping.

She couldn’t believe it. Why Tyler? She had expected Isobel, but not Tyler. He was supposed to be far away from all of this. Did Klaus really want to torment her that much? Wasn’t it enough for him to sacrifice his victims? No, he wanted them all to suffer. She shook her head blindly.

“Tyler – I’m sorry, I’m so sorry...”

Every word he spoke sounded like a terrible effort. “No – Elena – I’m going to change, but before I do, I wanted to apologize. For that night at your parents’ lake house.”

“No,” she said, “no, Tyler, you don’t have to apologize for anything, you already told me – you didn’t know. None of us knew things would end up like this. We should have been more honest with you. If we’d been open with you from the start...”

She swallowed. Would things have been different? They could have worked with Tyler, helped protect him. Stefan, Damon and Caroline all knew everything about the curse; she had made sure of that. Maybe that was why they weren’t in this circle and Tyler was.

Tyler let out a keening noise that sounded more animal than human. He was transforming... Soon there would be a wolf, not a human, trapped in that ring of fire, and then...

She looked outside the rings. There, a few feet away, Klaus was standing watching them, a smile on his face. Behind him, she recognized Greta and Maddox, the two witches. Maddox, she thought. He had promised to help. But he was chanting too, hand clasped with Greta’s over a stone basin.

Elena’s eyes shifted back to Klaus, and he winked at her.

 _As soon as Tyler becomes a wolf_ , she thought. _That’s when he’s going to kill him._

She didn’t give Klaus the satisfaction of a response. Instead, she turned away from him, back towards Tyler. He was curled up, gritting his teeth as more spasms wracked his body.

“Hold on,” she urged him. “Fight it.”

“I can’t,” Tyler gasped. “The others – Caroline – are they coming?”

Elena licked her lips, thinking quickly. They were supposed to be. They had to be. She didn’t know what was going on out there, but she could only assume that her friends intended to rescue them. Elijah could rally everyone and tell them about Maddox’s offer, what he had shown the two of them...

A demonstration, he had said. He had walked over to the unconscious Katherine, knelt down, and slipped the ring off her finger without any spells, incantations or any apparent effort at all. That was all it took. The witch who created the rings could remove them at any time.

She looked up. The moon was rising. They had to get here soon.

But she couldn’t give the game away in front of Klaus. Instead, she shook her head. “I – I don’t know.”

“Caroline,” Tyler gritted out. “Tell Caroline–”

His eyes flashed yellow in the firelight. He lunged forward with a growl, teeth bared, and Elena stumbled back in horror.

He couldn’t reach her, not with the fire between them, but it was still horribly frightening to see the monster behind Tyler’s eyes. That wasn’t him anymore, snapping and snarling, pacing the outside of the ring like a caged animal. But if there was anything of Tyler left in there at all, she had to answer him.

“I’ll tell her,” she whispered. “I will.”

The transformation was happening fast now: his bones cracking and reshaping, fingers becoming claws, fur rippling across his body. For one moment she glanced away and saw Klaus watching too, expression rapt. He looked fascinated. No, more than fascinated. He looked _hungry_. This was what he wanted; this was why he had waited a thousand years to complete the ritual.

They were going to die so that Klaus could become even more of a monster than he already was.

She felt sick. No one had come. Tyler was gone; in his place was a sleek coal-black wolf, its ears flattened as it shied away from the fire.

Klaus gestured over to Greta and Maddox, and the flames surrounding the wolf died away.

The wolf remained still for a moment, hackles raised, as if it didn’t quite know what to do. Then it took off, but not away from the scene – it rushed towards Klaus with supernatural speed. Klaus chuckled as he met the wolf head-on, grabbed it by the scruff of its neck and pinned it to the ground. The wolf’s limbs thrashed, its jaws snapping this way and that as it tried to get at the vampire grinning above it.  
Elena couldn’t breathe. A part of her hoped that the wolf could overpower Klaus or escape his grasp somehow, but she knew it wasn’t going to happen. Klaus was too strong.

It was over in seconds. The wolf let out a plaintive yelp before Klaus ripped out its heart and stood triumphantly holding the bloody thing in hand.

 _Tyler’s heart_ , she thought numbly. _Tyler’s dead._ She watched Klaus walk over to the witches and hold the still-dripping heart over the stone basin. Light flashed when the droplets of blood met whatever was inside the basin – a sign that the spell was working, she supposed. Tyler had died so that the ritual could be completed. The futility of it all overwhelmed her.

She collapsed to her knees and stared into the flames, gaze unfocused. Bright spots danced in front of her eyes. The witches’ chanting had faded away; all she could hear was the crackling of the fire, and all she could feel was the intense heat. Her hands found the grass and dirt beneath her, real and solid and alive, but she was overcome with only one desire: to throw herself into those flames. To burn along with everything else.

She crawled forward and the heat scorched her face, burning her tears away, and the flames flared up. But she couldn’t touch them. She was thrown back into the middle of the circle, where she hit the ground with a painful thud. Grimacing, she got to her feet, and found that she was being observed.

Isobel was staring at her from her circle. “What are you doing?”

“I have to die,” she mumbled. “I have to die.”

Klaus tutted. “Careful, love. You’ll die soon enough, don’t worry. After I deal with your mother.”

Elena looked at Isobel then and saw her own feelings reflected in her mother’s eyes: a sad resignation to her fate. They were both going to die, bound together. They’d never had so much in common, she thought bitterly.

She sat cross-legged on the grass, and waited.

*

  
The witches had gathered in the Salvatore library. Bonnie wasn’t sure why they had chosen to congregate there in particular, but Abby had seemed keen to stay away from the vampires and Gloria had been pleased to discover such a treasure trove of books. She supposed that knowledge must be attractive for witches. They recorded their spells in books, after all. As for Bonnie herself, she had never liked being anywhere in the Salvatore boarding house, so it made no difference to her.

When she told them what had happened, Abby simply squeezed her arm. It was the nearest she had come to showing any parental affection, and Bonnie was grateful for it.

“Are we still going ahead with this?” Lucy asked.

Bonnie nodded. “The sacrifice is happening. We have to.”

Her calls to Luka had failed, and so had her attempt to use magic to locate the Martins. Then Elijah appeared and told her that Jonas and Luka would be with them shortly. She didn’t know what Elijah had said to them. Probably some kind of threat.  
When they turned up, Bonnie made sure she was there.

“Let me speak to them,” she said.

For a second, she wondered if Elijah would allow this, but he simply nodded, his expression unfathomable, and slipped away. So it was Bonnie alone that opened the door of the Salvatore house and let the Martins in. Luka nodded and gave her a faint smile – still trying to be nice, she thought, after everything – but Jonas didn’t look as though he had the energy to be angry, let alone polite.

“Let’s get this over with,” he said.

Bonnie nodded. “This way.”

She led them into the library and found a quiet corner away from everyone else where they could talk.

“I know how you must be feeling right now,” she began.

“No, you don’t,” Jonas cut her off. He was standing behind an ornate desk, knuckles gripping the edge. “Elijah promised us that by killing Klaus, we could save Greta. This was all for Greta. All of it... Without her, what’s the point?”

Next to him, Luka nodded unhappily. He hadn’t said anything. But it was hard to imagine that he disagreed with his father on this.

“You can still save her,” said Bonnie. “Hear me out, please. If Klaus is dead, she has to move on. You have a chance to help her. If you don’t do anything... she’ll never be free of him. None of us will.”

Jonas’s brows knitted together. He had decided to come here, she thought, even if he had been threatened. Surely that meant they were willing to help.

Someone cleared their throat. Bonnie jumped, and turned around to find that they weren’t as alone as she had thought. Gloria stepped forward. She gave the Martins a calculating look.

“Excuse me, I overheard. If I might butt in. Bonnie is being really patient here. Your daughter got seduced by the dark side of magic. That sucks. We’re all sad for you. But she’s still alive, and that’s more than can be said for Bonnie’s friend who got killed today, or the countless number of witches Klaus has ever used and disposed of. Believe me, I know. I’ve known that guy for a long time, and killing him will be doing a big favour to all witches. The world will be a better place without him. Just a little fact for you.”

Jonas looked around at them. Gloria wasn’t the only one who had joined them. Abby looked up from a book she had been reading and returned it to a shelf before coming over too.

“Are you going to help?” she asked.

Finally, Jonas nodded. “What about Elijah?”

Luka spoke up. “He didn’t know, Dad. None of us knew that Greta wouldn’t...”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” said Abby. “Elijah tells people what they want to hear. It wouldn’t be the first time.”

Jonas was silent – Bonnie was aware, and she was fairly sure that they were all aware – that Elijah could easily overhear their conversation if he wanted to. Even amongst a group of powerful witches, they were all still wary of the Original vampire’s power.

“There are only six of us,” Jonas said. “Six of us means...”

“One of us has to die,” said Bonnie. She held up her hand, showing her ring. “I know.”

She noticed Gloria raising her eyebrows at Abby, and glanced at her mother to see her tight-lipped. Abby still hadn’t said anything about that. Again, maybe that was because of Elijah’s presence, but she’d had a chance to speak up before he had arrived, when it had become clear that their mission to get Greta’s help had failed. They’d both avoided mentioning it.

“It’s a pity,” said Gloria finally, “to lose one of ours for one of theirs.”

“This is Klaus we’re talking about,” Bonnie countered. She thought of Matt’s body, one more innocent in a long line of victims. If she needed to strengthen her resolve, that was enough. “We’ve wasted enough time. I’ll tell Stefan we’re ready.”

*

  
Caroline felt like going up to one of the Salvatore guest rooms, locking the door, and curling up in bed to cry herself to sleep. Or better yet, doing the same thing in the comfort of her own bedroom, away from everyone and everything else.

Instead, she was sitting on the staircase, staring numbly into space. That was how Damon found her. He dropped down on to the step beside her and Caroline flinched, but he only handed her a half-finished blood bag. At once her body reminded her how thirsty she was. She took it, fingers trembling as she gulped the liquid down.

“Perk up, Barbie,” he said. “Your mother called. They’ve picked up Matt’s body, so if you want to pay your respects...”

She lowered the blood bag and looked at him. “Did she ask for me?”

He shrugged. “Your mom’s pretty occupied right now. She’ll be the one cleaning up all this mess after we’re done.”

It didn’t escape Caroline’s notice that he referred only to her mother. Damon was an expert at cleaning up vampire-related messes, since he created so many of them. He probably didn’t expect to survive the night, she thought.

“Katherine will die when Klaus does, won’t she?” said Caroline slowly. “So if I’m there, I’ll know when you’ve succeeded.”

Damon nodded, twisting the ruby ring on his finger. It didn’t go at all with his daylight ring, she thought, ridiculously. He could pull off the lapis lazuli ring, but a second ring just looked over the top.

“If you want to keep watch on the bitch, you can do that too.”

“It’s better than doing nothing.”

He nodded again, a tired smile forming on his lips. “Right. I’d do it, but... sacrifice rituals and all that.”

“Right.”

“No one keeps Katherine contained,” he warned her. “Not even Klaus. Make sure she doesn’t get out.”

Before she could respond, Stefan appeared. “The Martins have agreed to help us. Elijah wants us all in the library.”

Damon stood up at once. “Goodbye, Caroline.”

Stefan nodded at her, giving her a small smile. “Goodbye.”

They disappeared, and Caroline felt her stomach drop. That wasn’t just a ‘see you later’. Already the house felt too big and silent without them. Not so long ago, she had thought that both Salvatores were goners. She had decided that she needed to step up in their place. When this was all over, she would have to pick up the pieces too.

She got to her feet, feeling slightly unsteady. Before she reached the entrance, however, she was stopped by Jenna.

Caroline blinked. “Hey.”

“You’re going to the police station, right?” said Jenna. “Can I come?”


	32. Partners in Crime

“So now we have the Martins on board,” Stefan said, nodding at them. “Thank you. But we’re still one witch short. Greta’s never going to help us.”

“Not a surprise,” was Damon’s verdict. “She’s been drinking the Klaus Kool-Aid.”

Bonnie rolled her eyes. Damon was crude, as ever, but he was right. The Salvatore brothers were leaning against one of the bookshelves, presenting as united a front as she had ever seen them. Of course, that might be because they were facing six witches, none of whom were sympathetic to vampires, and all of whom could take down both of them without breaking a sweat.

Then there was Elijah. He stood apart from everyone else, his gaze sweeping over each of them before he stepped forward.

“There is another.”

Stefan raised his eyebrows. “Another witch?”

“His name is Maddox. He’s working for Klaus. He has the ability to remove your rings, and he’s promised to help us kill Klaus when the time comes.”

Maddox... Yes, Bonnie remembered him. The man who had accompanied Greta to the ball. She knew nothing about him – where he came from, why he was working for Klaus – anything. How could they be sure that he wanted to help them?

Damon looked as unconvinced as Bonnie felt. “So where is he?”

“He’ll meet us at the ritual.”

Which meant that they wouldn’t know if Maddox was going to help them until the last second. They’d be going in there blind.

She asked the obvious question. “Can we trust him?”

“I don’t know,” Elijah admitted.

“Wait,” said Stefan slowly. “So what you’re saying is... he’s expecting us. That means, if he’s on Klaus’s side...”

“Klaus will be expecting us,” Elijah confirmed. “It was a risk worth taking.”

That prompted a murmur of dissent from the witches. Bonnie glanced at Abby, alarmed, and her mother shook her head. Unlike the rest of them, she didn’t seem surprised. Elijah had gone behind their back. He could have ruined everything.

She glared at him. “You’re not the one taking a risk here. We are.”

Elijah’s expression remained neutral. “Unfortunately, we’ve run out of options.”

“So we risk everything on one guy, who we have no idea if we can trust.” Gloria waved a hand, unimpressed. “Well, I’m in.”

“You _all_ need to be in,” Elijah said sternly. “Should Maddox prove honourable, it will take all of your strength to kill Klaus and stay alive in the process. Should he not, there are enough of you to deal with him.”

Stefan looked at Bonnie, his voice low. “Are you still willing to do this?”

“If it comes down to it,” said Bonnie, “I’ll take Klaus out myself. I’ll die if he does anyway, so I may as well go down fighting.”

There was a long moment of silence. Elijah broke it, his voice soft. “You’re very brave.”

Bonnie didn’t know how to feel about that. Bravery? That wasn’t what this was about. She’d never felt brave. She’d only ever done what she needed to do. And to hear this kind of praise from Elijah of all people...

Abby, however, made her feelings very clear. She stepped forward, shaking with barely suppressed rage.

“How dare you. How dare you look my daughter in the eye and tell her that she’s brave as you send her to her death.”

“Abigail,” Elijah began, but he wasn’t able to finish. Abby lifted a hand and Elijah was thrown back across the entire length of the room, where he hit the wall with an audible crack, narrowly missing one of the bookcases. Whether it was the wall cracking or Elijah’s spine, Bonnie didn’t know – probably both – but Abby hadn’t finished yet.

“You do not get to say those words. People have _died_ for the sake of your petty revenge. Do you think any of us are here for your revenge? No. We’re here to protect the people we love, and you – you want me to stand by while Bonnie sacrifices herself and you call her _brave_ –”

Her voice broke. She lowered her hand and Elijah fell to his knees, gasping for breath.

Stefan looked worried. Damon wasn’t even bothering to conceal his smirk. But one by one, the other witches moved to surround Abby, protecting her. Bonnie took Abby’s hand, blinking tears from her eyes. Even Jonas and Luka were standing with them.

Elijah stood up and smoothed a stray lock of hair back into place. He glanced at Damon and Stefan, and then at the witches. Bonnie tightened her hold on her mother’s hand.

It was Gloria who spoke up for all of them. “We’re doing the fighting here,” she said, “so we’re calling the shots. I suggest you vampires stay out of our way.”

“I’ll be upstairs,” said Elijah finally, and turned away without another word.

*

  
The wolf’s corpse still lay on the ground. It hadn’t reverted back to human form in death, and Elena thought of Mrs Lockwood, how she wouldn’t ever be able to bury her son’s body. What were they going to tell her?

“Elena.”

That was Isobel. “What?” she muttered.

Isobel shrugged. “I suppose... Now is my last chance to apologize to you. I’m the reason that Klaus found you. It was all me. I’m sorry. There was nothing I could do to stop it.”

Hearing that didn’t help. It only made her feel worse. Tyler had apologized to her, and he was dead. Isobel was going through the same motions, and even now Elena wasn’t sure whether her birth mother was being sincere or not.

But she had to acknowledge one thing. “I know you were compelled by Klaus. What he made you do... that’s not your fault.”

Her mother gave a nod, a slight smile curving her lips. Then she looked up, her eyes bright in the firelight. Klaus was approaching again. He clasped his hands behind his back, gazing up at the moon. Waiting.

So now it was Isobel’s turn to die. Both of her birth parents... dead within days of each other. She had hated them, but they were her parents. After all the effort she had gone to in order to find them... How she had hoped to reconnect with them, to fill the gap that her adoptive parents had left... All for nothing.

“Klaus,” she whispered.

Klaus blinked, looking at her with interest. “Yes, my dear?”

“Why her?” Elena asked. “You could have picked anyone – why Tyler and Isobel? I didn’t run. I did what you said so that you wouldn’t hurt anybody. Please. This isn’t fair.”

“Goodness me,” said Klaus, “who said anything about being fair? Now that I’ve triggered your suicidal tendencies, I can kill anyone I like.”

“What?”

He waved a hand. “Well, you can’t kill yourself in there. Greta spelled the circle. I tested your compulsion earlier with that blond boy you like – what’s his name? Matt. As long as you didn’t know he was dead, Elijah’s compulsion wouldn’t kick in. Now that you do, it doesn’t matter. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

She felt suddenly cold. Despite the fire, despite the heat in the air, Elena shivered.

“Don’t try to outsmart me, Elena.” Klaus had lowered his voice to a whisper. “I will make you suffer for it.”

She felt it again, that impulse, stronger than ever. She had to kill herself. Only this time she understood it for what it was. She remembered Elijah’s soft dark eyes, how effortlessly arresting they were. Heard him speak in that sleek, assured tone: command her to kill herself should any of her loved ones die. She had tried to fling herself into the fire. That hadn’t worked. This time, she found herself patting down her jeans, searching for any sharp object, anything that could help her accomplish her goal.

And while her body attempted to obey a command not her own, her mind had gone numb.

“You killed him?” she whispered.

“Drained him,” Klaus replied cheerfully. “Of course, if you think about it, it’s really your fault. If you hadn’t attempted to threaten me with your little mind control stunt, I wouldn’t have had to respond by killing one of your loved ones.”

She couldn’t speak. Tears clustered in her eyes, splintering her vision into a world of indistinct dark shapes and flickering light. Everything was fractured. Her plans had crumbled into pieces. She had one clear thought left.

_I want to die._

*

  
The library had turned into a Mystic Falls witch convention. It made Damon feel uncharacteristically nervous, especially after Abby’s little stunt with Elijah earlier. Oh, he had appreciated that – poetry in motion, really – but he was also pretty sure that if he so much as looked at one of these witches the wrong way, they’d do the same to him. Witches. Eternally judgy.

Stefan gave him a sideways glance. “How are you feeling?”

Damon snorted. “Really? ‘How are you feeling?’ That’s all you’ve got?”

“It’s a simple question, Damon.”

“Right now? Impatient. How long does it take a bunch of witches to screw in a light bulb? Not as long as these idiots.”

Frankly, he was beginning to suspect that the witches were deliberately stalling. First there was the delay with the Martins arriving late. Then Abby getting pissed at Elijah and having to be talked down by the others – mostly Bonnie. Now he and Stefan were watching three of the witches engaged in a spell which seemed to involve a lot of candles and chanting. In other words, like pretty much every spell ever. He had no idea what they were doing.

“Elijah said he gave Elena the elixir,” said Stefan. “So even if we’re too late... she could still be okay.”

He looked at his brother. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”

Stefan shook his head heavily. His expression was pained. “I feel like I’m losing her. In more ways than one.”

Damon sighed. “Stefan.”

“You told me about how you found her with Elijah. I just wish... I’d had a chance to talk to her.”

“Yeah, yeah. You wanted to kiss and make up. Much as I appreciate our discussions about the epic love between you and Elena, now is really not the time, brother.”

“Sorry.” Thankfully, Stefan didn’t press the issue. He straightened up. “I’m gonna go check on Bonnie. See if you can find out how close the witches are to locating Elena.”

“Will do.”

Damon watched Stefan go, then waited a moment to size up the witches in the room. Lucy, Jonas and Luka were still casting their spell, Gloria watching over them. The only witch nearby who wasn’t involved was Abby. She was sitting straight-backed and tense in a chair by herself, her expression haunted. He sidled over to her.

“Abby,” he said, holding out his hand. “We haven’t officially been introduced. I’m Damon.”

She looked at him, then his hand, then back at him again. “What do you want, Damon?”

Cold. She was going to be as difficult as her daughter. He dropped his hand back to his side and glanced towards the others. “Your witchy friends. Are they nearly done?”

“I couldn’t tell you,” said Abby. “I haven’t practised magic in ten years.”

He sighed. Really not helpful. “You know, I’m curious. Seems as though you and Elijah have a history. Am I wrong?”

“You’re not wrong.”

“Can we trust him?”

There was a pause. Her expression darkened. Slowly, she shook her head.

He grimaced, putting on a fake cheery tone. “Thanks, that’s reassuring.”

“What did you want me to say?”

She had a point. Damon shrugged. “Fine. Can we trust you?”

Abby glanced over to the other side of the room. “They’re doing protection spells,” she said. “It should help us last longer when the time comes.”

“Protection spells?” He frowned. “You’re supposed to be finding Elena! She could be dead by now!”

“She’s not,” said Abby. “We know where to find her, but we need to make sure that we’re ready first. There are only six of us. We need the extra protection. Jonas said... if we could shield Bonnie, maybe...”

She trailed off, but Damon understood. They were trying to find a loophole, a way to get around their missing witch in order for Bonnie to survive. So he had been right. They were stalling. But before Damon could take her to task for that, Abby pulled out a crumpled piece of notepaper from her jacket pocket and unfolded it to show him. His eyes widened.

Someone had written on it in blue ink. _Take both out._

He raised his eyebrows and mouthed a reply. _Elijah?_

Abby nodded. Well, well. Damon couldn’t help but grin. Maybe Bonnie’s mom wasn’t so bad after all.

*

  
Elijah retreated to a study, but he wasn’t left alone for long. Bonnie followed him. He waited for her to appear, admiring the beautiful mahogany desk that was the centrepiece of the room. The wood was smooth and old; he ran his fingers over a knot, a reminder that the wood had once been a living tree. It still held that spark of life, even if it was a century old. Life that was poisonous to vampires.

The door creaked open. Bonnie looked at him, tight-lipped, her entire body tense. Clearly she hadn’t come to apologize.

“We’re doing a locator spell,” she said. “Wherever Elena is, we’ll find her.”

He nodded. So the witches were co-operating. Their desire to see Klaus dead outweighed their reluctance to work with him. Bonnie was the centre of this group. She was the one with a connection to Elena. She was the one he most needed on his side.

“Bonnie,” he said quietly. “I’m well aware that you’re not doing this for me. I don’t expect you to.”

“No,” she cut him off. “You’re using me to get to Klaus. And that’s okay. We both want the same thing. But if you take so much as one step out of line... If you betray us. I’ll take you down too.”

There was a pause. “I understand,” he said.

Her expression was still wary, but she nodded. “I talked to Abby. She’s going to help us.”

“Good,” he said distantly. He hadn’t even had to ask; of course Bonnie would have done her utmost to convince her mother. She was a far better motivator than he ever could be. “You know, I knew your mother well.”

“I know,” said Bonnie. “She told me.”

“We were quite close, once upon a time. I daresay your mother has the measure of me. She understands our options. If Maddox keeps his word, you will all live. If you fight without him, there will be casualties, but the battle can still be won. Klaus can be killed.” He paused, so that he could give his next words their proper weight. “If you fail, however... I doubt that any of you will live to see tomorrow.”

He saw the moment that she caught his meaning, the fear in her eyes. Even the bravest of people had something they feared above all else. Often, it was the same thing: Bonnie’s drive to protect her loved ones gave her courage, but it was a courage born out of fear of losing them. In that regard, he reflected, she was much like Elena – and therefore he shouldn’t underestimate her. Unlike Elena, she also had the power to kill him.

Fortunately, he’d had a lot of practice negotiating with stubborn human girls recently.

He smiled. “We share the same opinion on betrayal, Bonnie. As long as we understand each other.”

“Yes,” she said, half-whispering.

“Come,” he said. “The moon is rising. It won’t be long now.”

*

  
Caroline only got a brief look at Matt’s body before they hurried him off to the medical examiner, but it was enough for the reality to hit her again. Jenna put an arm around her shoulders as she tried to stop herself from shaking.

“What’s the verdict going to be?” she asked.

Liz’s face looked pale and drawn. “I don’t know. He was found near his truck, so maybe a car accident. The coroner will come up with something.”

It repulsed her, the thought of it. Covering up the true cause of Matt’s death with lies. But what else could they do? She was asking her own mother, the sheriff, to hide the fact that she was a vampire too... That she had killed people. Dimly, she wondered what the coroner’s verdict had been on the police officers she had killed. Killed in the line of duty, probably. Or the carnival worker...

“So where’s Katherine?” Jenna asked.

Liz sighed. “I’ll show you.”

Katherine had been incarcerated in the town prison. Caroline had visited a couple of times before when she was younger. She looked around, wary but interested, as Liz showed them inside. Her mother led them down a spiral staircase to what was apparently a basement. Or a dungeon, she thought. Jenna looked like she was getting all kinds of horror movie vibes, and Caroline squeezed her arm reassuringly.

“I didn’t know this was here.”

“You wouldn’t,” said Liz. “It’s a secret. A prison cell designed to hold vampires. The Founders’ Council installed it back in 1864.”

Jenna was the last to descend the staircase. She folded her arms. “And there I always thought the council was an excuse for the founding families to dress up and play at being important.”

“It is,” said Liz grimly, “but if ever there was a town with skeletons in our closet...”

Jenna gave a humourless laugh. “Right.”

 _Skeletons_ , Caroline thought. Like Matt. Tears threatened to spill again as she watched her mother walk up to the heavy iron-cast door and look through the bars. Whatever they did to stop Klaus and to get rid of Katherine after all the havoc they had wreaked on her home... it wouldn’t bring back Matt. It wouldn’t bring back anyone.

Liz’s next words startled her out of her thoughts.

“She’s gone!”

Caroline blinked. “What?”

“What?” Jenna echoed.

“She’s not in there – she should be in that chair, we chained her up–” Her mother stepped back, already fumbling with her radio, and Caroline immediately took her place.

It was dark in there. But Caroline could see through the dark, and her mother was right: the chair was empty. She could see more than that too – she could see the chains that had once held its prisoner in place, snapped and broken. The sharp tang of fear trembled through her body. Katherine was loose. Katherine had gotten out.

She wrinkled her nose as a breath of air drifted through the bars, bringing with it the scent of–

Caroline jerked back at once. “Is that vervain?”

“It’s in the air,” said Liz. “I’ll turn it off.”

Caroline held her nose, eyes watering, and backed off. Jenna gave her a concerned look and she shook her head to indicate that she’d be all right. She knew one thing: she did not want to go into that cell.

Liz unbolted the door with a screech of metal on metal, and it creaked open. The fumes from the cell immediately became stronger.

Several things happened then. Caroline went into a coughing fit. Liz stepped into the cell. Jenna said, “Wait, are you _sure_ she’s not–”

And Katherine flew at Liz.

Her mother cried out – her head hit the wall and Katherine pounced on her at once, and bit. “No,” Caroline screamed. “No, no!” The twin scents of vervain and blood were almost overpowering, one poisonous, one intoxicating – she felt her fangs extend without meaning to, beyond her control. She threw herself at Katherine, who tossed her aside as though she was nothing more than a bug. Pain flickered through her nerves. The vervain in the air was making her drowsy too, her muscles slow and sluggish.

Katherine dropped Liz and stood up, her eyes dark, mouth bloody. Caroline was breathing hard, feeling weaker than she had thought possible, but she took the opportunity to scramble over to her mother, cradling her.

“Mom,” she whispered, and she wanted to take deep breaths to calm herself at the sight of Liz’s bleeding throat but she couldn’t with the vervain in the air, so she gave herself no time to consider: she bit into her wrist and forced her mother to drink.

Jenna had backed away to the foot of the staircase, her eyes wide.

Katherine wiped her mouth in distaste. “Can someone get me someone to eat who’s _not_ full of vervain?”

*

  
“We’re done,” said Lucy, flicking her hair behind her shoulder as she moved past Damon. “Time to go.”

That was the cue for everyone to move. They split into groups and headed out: Elijah with Jonas and Luka Martin, Stefan with Bonnie and Abby, and Damon with Lucy and Gloria. He caught up with Lucy, falling into step with her.

“I remember you,” said Damon approvingly. “You’re the reason we got Katherine in the tomb.”

Lucy smiled. “Didn’t stick, did it?”

They were the last to leave. But before he left the house, he saw Alaric watching them from the entrance to the parlour, arms folded.

Damon indicated for Lucy and Gloria to go ahead without him. “My car’s out back. I’ll be there in a second.” He turned to regard Alaric. “Hey, Ric. What’s up?”

“I’m taking Jeremy home,” said Alaric. “Just... come back alive, okay?”

Damon nodded. “You remember what to do if I don’t?”

They’d already had this conversation. Damon wasn’t about to rehash it. He knew that Alaric would remember.

“You know, for a guy who’s lived for over a century and a half, you’re kinda suicidal. Save Elena, come back home. It’s not hard.”

He laughed. “Right. I’ll see you later, Ric.”

Ric sighed. “See you later.” He gave Damon a quick pat on the shoulder, paused a second – but there was no more to say, nothing either of them could say. He retreated back inside the house, already calling for Jeremy.

Damon stared after him. That was it. Their goodbye. He’d never thought he would have so many goddamn people to say goodbye to. Goodbyes sucked.

Once outside, he shared only one brief look with Stefan before heading to his car. He wasn’t going to say goodbye to his brother, not yet. It felt too final.

At least if they died, they would go together.

*

  
To Katherine’s complete and utter surprise, Jenna pulled a blood bag out of her bag and offered it to her.

“I figured you’d need it,” she said, in reply to Katherine’s raised eyebrow.

Well, that was good enough for her. Katherine took it, trying a small sip just in case Jenna was trying to trick her – she doubted it, but Katherine hadn’t survived five hundred years by taking unnecessary risks. The blood was fine, and she drank hungrily.

“So... we should probably go,” Jenna added. She was looking at Caroline and Liz, who were both recovering – Caroline had given Liz her blood, and she had just noticed Jenna’s little peace offering.

“Jenna... What are you doing?”

Caroline looked and sounded utterly bewildered, as well she might. But Katherine was feeling rejuvenated already, the blood was singing through her veins, and her mind worked fast.

She tilted her head at Jenna, realizing what was going on. “You’re here to help me.”

For a fraction of a second, Jenna hesitated, her expression doubtful. Caroline still looked confused – a poor reaction time for a vampire, but Katherine supposed that she had the excuse of the lingering vervain in the air. Liz was just beginning to sit up.

Then Jenna nodded.

The shrill disbelief in Caroline’s voice was poetry to her ears. “ _What_?”

Katherine crumpled up the blood bag and tossed it aside, grinning. “Partners in crime.”

As always, she acted faster than anyone else. She threw Caroline in the vampire-proof cell, snatched the key from Liz’s belt, shoved her in too, and slammed the door. It shut with a satisfying clang. One twist of the key later, Katherine was done. She turned back to Jenna, whose pathetically slow human instincts meant that her jaw had dropped and not much else. She hadn’t even moved.

“So,” said Katherine, spinning the key around her finger, “where to?”

*

  
There weren’t many things bleaker than thinking about death. Despite everything that had happened to her over the past year, Elena hadn’t thought about it much. Not really. Not death itself. When her parents died, all she could think about was how she had lost them, how there would forever be an empty space in her life where her mom and dad should have been. For months, she had felt like she was only pretending at living.

Then Stefan had come into her life, and she had started living again. The irony of it struck her: she had been brought to life by the presence of death. Living with vampires, falling in love with vampires.... All those times her life was in the balance, when her friends’ lives were in the balance, her focus had always been on keeping them alive. Even when she had offered to die in order to save her loved ones, it was they who consumed her thoughts. Not death itself.

Not death itself.

She sat on her knees in the damp grass, surrounded by flames, and thought of death. Maybe it would be better. She wouldn’t have to feel anything. No pain, no worries, no thoughts – no anything. Her existence would no longer be a reason for anyone to fight over her, or die for her, or die because of her.

Oblivion was not blissful, because oblivion wasn’t anything. She wouldn’t rest. She wouldn’t sleep. She would just be gone.

But she had taken the elixir. She might come back.

“Elena.”

That was Klaus’s voice, soft as silk, calling her back to the present. Elena lifted her eyes to him. He held out his hand, but not to her.

“Wouldn’t want you to miss the show, love. It’s time. Isobel, come here.”

He wanted her to watch. He was holding a stake, and he wanted her to watch Isobel die. She felt like her tears had run out already, for Matt and Tyler. She had none for her biological mother. Elena watched, stony-faced, as the fire around Isobel died down, as her mother slowly stood up and moved, trance-like, towards Klaus.

“Can I have a last word?” Isobel asked, her fingers brushing Klaus’s hand.

He smiled. “Of course. Have a few. Just not a novel; we are on a schedule.”

She shook her head, dark hair falling forward. “It won’t take long. I just wanted to tell you... I learned a lot from Katherine. How to run. How to take what I wanted.” She raised her chin and stared up at Klaus. “I learned to not only have a plan A, but a plan B, a plan C... and so on, all the way through–”

Elena saw the flash of uncertainty in Klaus’s eyes, swiftly followed by anger. She held her breath. In the pause before everything happened, the air seemed to rumble in her ears like approaching thunder; the fire burned higher and hotter than ever before; and the ever-present chanting of the witches sent goosebumps across her flesh.

The wind was rising. Isobel didn’t finish her sentence.

She vanished in a blur and reappeared next to Greta, sinking her fangs into the witch’s throat. Klaus snarled and started forward – but a circle of flames sprang up around him, repelling him just as it had done with Elena.

And then Elena cried out, because there was _Stefan_ – he was pulling Isobel off Greta, shouting to someone else – Damon – Damon was beside Maddox, hissing something, demanding something–

Then the witches, six of them in a line – Elena’s heart clenched as she saw Bonnie striding at the head of the group, the air around her heavy with power. She was the heart of the thunderstorm.

The fire died.

And Klaus screamed.


	33. Traitors

The rage and injustice of a hundred dead witches tore through her body. Bonnie was a conduit, a vessel for more power than she had felt imaginable – and all that hatred was directed at Klaus, who writhed and cried out in agony on the ground.

“Help me!” she said, and she felt Lucy touch her left shoulder, while Gloria laid a hand on her right. They were the only two with her. Abigail had gone straight after Maddox, and Jonas and Luka had rushed over to Greta. She couldn’t kill Klaus like this.

“Hold back, honey,” said Gloria. “We’re not ready for the final blow yet.”

*

  
The flames around her had disappeared. Elena blinked a few times, stars bursting in front of her eyes as she tried to adjust to the sudden darkness. She couldn’t see anything – only indistinct shapes – but she could hear Klaus roaring in pain above the sound of the witches chanting. Whatever they were doing, it was working.

She crawled forward.

“Elena!”

An arm around her shoulders, a familiar concerned face–

*

  
Damon grabbed Maddox by his collar. “Ring. Off. Now.”

The witch didn’t blink. He seemed unafraid, uninterested even. The first hint of a flicker in his expression came when Abigail caught up with them.

“Help us!” she said. “You promised to help.”

Maddox nodded. “Bonnie first.”

He shrugged free of Damon’s grip, and Damon reluctantly let him go. Abigail wasn’t going to be doing any Original killing while her daughter’s life remained bound to Klaus. If they had to save Bonnie first, so be it.

He watched, tense and wary, as Maddox uttered a spell, and flames leapt up to encircle Klaus once more.

“Bonnie!” Maddox called. “Stand down.”

“Stand _down_?” Damon repeated, but Abigail was already hurrying over to Bonnie. She shook her daughter’s shoulders, pulling her away.

Damon spared a glance over to Greta, who lay unconscious on the ground, Jonas and Luka kneeling beside her. There was no sign of Isobel. As Damon watched, Jonas muttered something and touched Greta’s forehead before straightening up. Damon’s mouth tightened. They were healing her, but if she woke up...

Jonas’s eyes met his. “She’s sleeping,” he said.

That was enough. Damon immediately turned back to Maddox. He had reached Abigail and Bonnie; they were holding out their hands... Behind them, Gloria and Lucy watched, silhouetted by the fire. And behind them, trapped within the fire itself, Klaus watched. He had fallen silent, but his stance was tightly coiled, tense. If Maddox’s spell faltered for a single second... Damon had no doubt about what would happen. The fire was the only thing keeping him at bay.

A flash of silver and red...

The ring slipped away from Bonnie’s finger, and fell to the ground, forgotten.

Bonnie looked at him. Her gaze was unwavering, but he understood her silent question.

Damon nodded. “I’ll get Stefan.”

*

  
Elena breathed a sigh of relief. “Stefan...”

He pulled her to her feet and simply cupped her face, gazing at her. Appreciating that she wasn’t dead.

“Where’s Elijah?” she breathed, and she saw his face crumple. Oh God, didn’t he realize why she was asking? This was supposed to be Elijah’s plan to carry out. Yet in the darkness and the confusion, she hadn’t seen him.

“He’s here,” said Stefan. “Elena, let’s go–”

She shook her head. “No, there’s something you have to help me with first. Do you have a stake? A knife, a dagger – any weapon.”

He frowned. “We all brought weapons, in case we needed them – but it won’t work on Klaus. Let the witches take care of him.”

“Give it to me,” she said. When he hesitated, she shook his arm, tone insistent. “I said give it to me, Stefan. I’m not leaving.”

Stefan paused for another fraction of a second before taking out a stake from inside his jacket and handing it over to her. His voice was low, eyes intense in that way she loved, as if she was the only person who existed in that moment, the only person in the world who mattered to him. “I will gladly help you stake Klaus.”

She smiled, took a step back. Of course he would.

Then Elena lifted the stake and drove it into her chest.

*

  
Caroline curled up, shivering, arms wrapped around her knees. She felt ill with the vervain in the air, and sick with fear. Her only task tonight had been to make sure that Katherine didn’t escape. She had failed.

She sniffed as her mother knelt down and laid a hand on her shoulder. “I’ve turned off the ventilation,” said Liz. “Can you hang in there until the officers get us out? They won’t be long.”

She nodded.

“So what’s going on out there?” Liz asked, after a few seconds of silence.

It was a question she didn’t really want to think about. “I don’t know. Trying to kill Klaus, I guess.”

Her mother shifted around so that she was facing Caroline. Her eyes were bright and earnest. “You know that you can tell me things, don’t you, Caroline? Everything that’s going on with the vampires in this town. You have told me everything, haven’t you?”

She frowned. “Yeah – I...”

Liz’s mouth tightened. She seemed to struggle with herself, shaking her head, before she looked up at Caroline again. “Are Damon and Stefan vampires?”

Caroline blinked. “What?”

“Are they vampires?”

“No – I – no. Why would you think that?” She was caught off-guard, floundering. It was the most obvious lie in the world, and both of them knew it.

Liz’s tone didn’t change. “Tell me. Are they vampires?”

She threw up her hands – literally and figuratively. “Does it matter? They’re out there trying to save Elena’s life, trying to save everyone from Klaus. They’re the good guys. It doesn’t matter if they – if we have fangs or a – a few dietary issues, you know? If you can believe that I’m a good person, Mom, you can believe that they are.”

There was a long pause during which Caroline tried to gather her thoughts and decide how she might broach the subject of Damon, who was most definitely not a good guy even if he was on their side. She wasn’t sure she was capable of making such fine distinctions right now. At least not in a way that wouldn’t send her mother after Damon with a stake.

It was Liz who broke the silence. “We made Damon head of the council.”

The sheer disbelief in her tone made Caroline laugh. She shrugged. “Well, no one ever said the council was smart.”

*

  
“Well,” said Maddox. “Are you ready?”

Bonnie took a deep breath. She felt dizzy – heart pounding, head thrumming – the heady rush of magic like adrenaline running through her veins. She had never felt so alive. Alive! The ring was gone. She was free.

She was going to survive.

Jonas and Luka had rejoined them. They were all here. Seven witches, holding the power of a hundred, under the light of a full moon. They could kill Klaus right now.  
But...

“What about Stefan and Damon?”

Maddox answered her. “They’re vampires. Let them die.”

She swallowed. It was tempting. It was tempting not to protest, to imagine that she had done all she could. More than anything, Bonnie wanted out of this, to go back to a time when vampires didn’t have such a hold over their lives. None of the witches would object. Why should they?

But Elena would.

“Traitor.”

The venom, the rage, the implacable hatred in that single word stopped Bonnie before she could even begin to formulate a response. One by one the witches turned to the source of that voice.

Klaus.

He was prowling along the inside edge of the circle, and Bonnie had the horrible feeling that he was testing it. She hoped that Maddox’s spell would hold. It bought them time, and they needed every second if Stefan and Damon were going to survive.

Finally, Klaus stopped to stare at Maddox, and she could practically feel the hatred radiating from him.

“I trusted you,” said Klaus. “You swore an oath to me.”

“I don’t make pledges with vampires,” Maddox replied.

“I will kill you all for this,” Klaus spat. “I will kill your children, and your children’s children.” His eyes alighted on Gloria, and a hint of vulnerability shone through, his voice softening. “Gloria... How could you do this to me? I was nothing but good to you.”

“You’re nothing but bad news for everyone,” Gloria retorted.

“And you,” said Klaus, turning his gaze to Abigail. Bonnie felt her mother tremble beside her. “I remember you. Elijah’s girl, isn’t that right? Where is he? Where’s my brother?”

*

  
Hidden amongst the shadows of the trees, Elijah saw everything. His gaze fixed on Maddox first – the one unknown quantity in his plan – but the moment the witch stopped Klaus from reaching Isobel and Greta, he breathed a sigh of relief. He saw Isobel flee after taking out Greta – away from him, or he might have considered pursuing her. Damon went after Maddox, Stefan went after Elena, and the witches were just beginning to set their power against Klaus.

He had intended to stay hidden until the last possible moment. He would watch Klaus burn, and then he would let his brother know why he was doing this.

_For our family._

Elena ruined all that. He saw Stefan hand over the stake to her, and understanding hit him a split second before Elena aimed the stake at her heart.

“No!”

Had that cry been torn from his own heart? Or was it Stefan – or Damon, who blurred over to his brother just as Elena staggered back with a cry. The smell of blood ensnared his senses. He moved as fast as he could, but not fast enough to reach her first. Damon tore the stake away; Stefan caught her and pressed a bloody wrist to her mouth. She was thrashing, choking, fighting him at every turn. Very much alive, then. Stefan’s blood would heal her wound. It would not cure her desire to kill herself.

There was only one thing to do.

He made a grab for Elena and pulled her away easily, throwing Stefan back. Elena didn’t stop struggling for even a second.

“Let go of me!”

Damon glared at Elijah as he helped his brother up. “What are you doing?”

“She’s compelled. I’ll take care of her. Go.”

The Salvatores stared at him. They were both tense, breathing heavily. They exchanged a glance and Elijah knew that they were a second away from attacking him. One of his arms was wrapped around Elena’s waist, holding her tight to his body; she had finally given up fighting but he could feel her ragged breaths, her heart fluttering like a bird in a cage.

He curled his other hand around Elena’s throat.

“Go.”

“You heard him,” a female voice purred.

Elijah hissed through his teeth as Katerina stalked up behind the brothers – of course she had escaped. But he wasn’t in a position to do anything about that, and from the self-satisfied look that Katerina threw at him, he knew that she knew it.

She laid a hand on each of the Salvatores’ arms – conspicuously bare hands, he noticed. How had she done it? Both brothers seemed too surprised to speak.

“Come on,” Katerina urged them. “Elena’s safe with Elijah. Do you want to live, or not?”

*

  
It had happened like this. Katherine got Jenna away from the city jail, out into the open. Jenna had never moved at vampire speed before. It was an incredibly odd feeling. She had barely digested the fact that they had stopped in a park before Katherine was bombarding her with questions.

“Where are they? Where is the ritual taking place? Who’s there? How much time do we have?”

She had to confess that she didn’t know the answer to any of those questions. Katherine’s mouth thinned.

“I thought you were supposed to be helping me,” she hissed.

Her eyes looked black in the moonlight, and Jenna took a step back, suddenly nervous of the vampire. It was in these moments that Katherine looked nothing like Elena and very much like a creature that might tear her apart on a whim.

“They’re somewhere in Mystic Falls,” Jenna began. She was going to add a suggestion along the lines of splitting up to look, when Katherine’s phone rang.

Katherine turned away to answer, and Jenna watched, biting her lip.

“Hello? Isobel.” Her voice became urgent. “Tell me.” There was a seconds-long pause that felt agonizingly long, and then Katherine nodded. “I’ll be right there.”

Katherine slid the phone back into her jacket pocket and turned back to give Jenna an appraising look.

She ventured a question. “Isobel’s alive? How?”

“Let’s find out.”

That was how Jenna found herself in the middle of the woods at the dead of night, knowing that somewhere quite close by a group of vampires, witches, and Elena were all battling it out. Katherine had gone straight to find them, leaving Jenna with Isobel.

“Where’s Elena?” she asked.

Isobel looked like she was listening to something. It took her a second to blink and respond to the question. “That’s not your concern. Unless you’d like to get yourself killed, in which case she’s that way.”

Helpful. Jenna shook her head. “I thought you were going to be sacrificed. What happened?”

“Maddox gave me vervain,” Isobel replied. “I had to pretend to be compelled so that Klaus wouldn’t suspect anything.”

“So all this time, you were pretending?”

“Not all this time. A little of it. I thought I was going to die. Klaus would kill me before he got to Elena.”

“But he didn’t,” said Jenna, realizing. “So... Elena is okay.”

Isobel shrugged, and Jenna found herself becoming irritated with the vampire. She always seemed so emotionless, like she didn’t care at all.

“You’re her mother. If you want to save Elena, why aren’t you there right now, saving her?”

“I did my part,” said Isobel. “It’s up to the Salvatores now.”

“And Katherine.”

Isobel shook her head. “Katherine hasn’t gone to save Elena. She’s gone to save her Salvatore boys.”

*

  
The night was a blur. She remembered seeing Stefan and Damon, a pain in her chest, fighting them – him...

The moon shone directly above them, a bright white disc. That was how she could see Elijah, the lines of his face carved from shadows, his eyes bottomless depths that she could very easily sink into...

“You don’t have to harm yourself, Elena.”

His voice seemed to reverberate through her, clearing her head. Just like that, she breathed in and everything came into focus. She was in the woods – they had moved away from the clearing. The night air was strangely warm. Her ribcage hurt; she could feel blood on her clothes. And Elijah’s hand was cupping her cheek. She brought her hand up to enclose his, swallowing. There was a naked tenderness in his eyes that she had never seen before, and it took her breath away.

“Elijah...”

Was there time to ask all the questions she wanted to ask? Not now, not in the dark.

He smiled. “Welcome back.”

“Klaus,” she said.

He nodded. “My brother is calling for me. Come.”

*

  
Katherine nudged the semi-conscious Greta with her boot. “Half-dead witch. Just the way I like them.”

They were by a stone altar, where Greta and Maddox had been performing the ritual, and only a few yards away from where Klaus was trapped. Damon glanced over to the other witches. Jonas and Luka were with them. Luckily their attention was entirely fixed on Klaus, as it should be. He figured they had maybe a minute before one of the witches noticed what they were doing and put a stop to it.

Greta’s eyelids fluttered as Damon knelt down beside her. “Come on, sweetie,” he said. “Give me your hand – there’s a good girl.”

It only took a little persuasion to coax Greta into divesting both of them of their rings in her groggy state. That, and his hand around her throat.

“How did you know that Maddox wouldn’t help us?” Stefan asked, raising an eyebrow at Katherine.

“I heard him talking with Bonnie. Seems that Klaus isn’t the only vampire he wants dead. Greta was much more helpful.”

Damon smiled wryly. A witch who wanted all vampires dead. Not exactly original. But Katherine, resourceful as always, had found another way. He let go of Greta and stepped away from her, aware that he was probably first on her hit list when she recovered.

“I suggest you two take Elena and get out of here,” Katherine added.

“Not until Klaus is dead,” Damon replied, and he felt rather than saw Stefan nod in agreement. They were seeing this thing through, even if they were surrounded by a bunch of hostile witches.

She shrugged. “Suit yourself. Isobel and I are leaving.”

A nearby movement alerted all of them – Katherine first, her head snapping sideways. Elijah and Elena were approaching the clearing. When Damon glanced towards Katherine again, she had vanished.

It occurred to him that she had risked her life to save them. Elijah wanted her dead. Any of the witches could have killed her too. But he only allowed that to bother him for a moment before he shook his head, pushing all thought of Katherine away. Elena was still here, and they had an Original to kill.

Damon nudged his brother.

“If he shows any sign of chickening out, go for him.”

Stefan nodded. Damon could tell that he wouldn’t have any problem at all with that; his brother’s eyes were burning. But if they were going to take out Elijah too, they needed to get Elena away from him.

*

  
The witches had fanned out in a semi-circle around Klaus. Elena walked in step with Elijah, her heart soaring. The sight of Klaus, trapped, helpless, was incredibly satisfying. As they approached, the witches turned to face them, Bonnie among them – Elena increased her pace–

A hand on her shoulder.

“Elena.”

It was Stefan. She stopped and found herself between the Salvatores. Elijah stopped too, but Elena shook her head, indicating that it was okay for him to go on. She glanced between the brothers, her expression anxious.

“Are you okay?”

“Ring-free,” Damon replied, wriggling his fingers.

Relief washed over her. “Then we can kill him.”

She wanted to run over to Bonnie, tell her this – Elijah was already striding ahead to meet his brother – but again a hand on her shoulder stopped her. This time it was Damon’s hand and his grip was unforgiving.

“Not another step.”

“Damon!” She tried to shrug him off, but he wouldn’t let her. It was an all too familiar sensation that made her grit her teeth in frustration. She gave Stefan an annoyed look – _do something_.

But Stefan was watching Elijah. Elijah and Klaus had come face-to-face for what would be the last time, and Elena found herself falling silent too. She had to witness this moment, even from a distance. She had to know that Klaus was dead.

*

  
Bonnie stood aside as Elijah passed her to stand at the edge of the circle of fire and meet his brother’s eyes.

Klaus’s voice shook a little. “Elijah...”

“I’m here,” Elijah replied.

Klaus spread his hands, looking around. “Well, what are we to do now, brother, hmm? You stopped me from breaking the curse. You saved the doppelgänger. Just like you wanted five hundred years ago. Congratulations. So what now?”

“Now,” said Elijah, “I’m going to watch you die.”

Bonnie glanced over at her mother, who was standing opposite her, with Elijah between them. Abigail gave a little nod. This was their chance. She stepped back.

“Now!” she cried.

Something cracked, like a lightning strike, and everything went pitch black. She could still feel the other witches though; they were all connected, and Bonnie channelled her power through them. She set the clearing ablaze again, a spell that she had never worked herself, but Maddox knew it, and through him so did she.

Only this time, the circle of flames surrounded both Elijah and Klaus.


	34. Through the Fire

Klaus seemed surprisingly calm, regarding the scene with little more than a raised eyebrow. It was Elijah who cast around like a trapped animal, nostrils flared, furious that they had dared to betray him.

“I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you weren’t expecting this.” Klaus folded his arms. “Change of plan?”

Elijah ignored him. He stepped up to the very edge of the flames – but from the inside this time, and oh, he had walked straight into this. Blinded by his desire for revenge, he had thought only of having a front row seat when his mission finally succeeded. He had given the witches exact instructions on how to kill an Original, and here he was, about to die with his brother.

The fire flared up, forcing him to step back. He hissed at Bonnie. “What are you doing?”

She stared back at him, unflinching. “Sending you both to hell.”

*

  
In the second that everything went pitch black, Elena froze. She didn’t know if this was supposed to happen or not. But then the world reappeared, the scene exactly as it had been before except for one crucial thing: Elijah was trapped with Klaus.

“No,” Elena gasped, trying to wrench free of Damon’s grip. “What are you doing? What is she doing?”

“She’s doing what we’ve been trying to do for a long time,” Damon replied.

Stefan took a step forward. His jaw dropped; in contrast to his brother, he clearly hadn’t anticipated this. “They’re going to kill both of them.”

It was like a lead weight had landed on her chest and plummeted through to her stomach. “You can’t! Stop it! Make them stop it.”

“You’re being difficult, Elena,” said Damon in a bored tone. She made a sound that was part sob, part growl, and kicked him, forcing her already worn-out body to struggle as hard as she could. It did no good. Damon didn’t even do her the courtesy of looking at her; he simply held her at arm’s length while he looked on at the scene playing out before them.

They were only a few yards away, but Bonnie had her back to her and so did the other witches. Even if Bonnie heard her shouting, would she listen? Would any of them listen?

“Stefan,” she said. “Please. Stop this. You know that Elijah doesn’t deserve this. If it wasn’t for him, I’d be dead by now!”

Stefan looked at her, and she thought that he looked conflicted. His brows were drawn, the fire casting deep shadows over his face. But he shook his head.

“It’s for the best, Elena,” he said quietly.

She wanted to spit at him. “This isn’t right, and you know it.”

“Don’t blame us,” Damon said. “This was Bonnie’s idea. She’s getting her revenge.”

Bonnie... Elena swallowed. She could see Bonnie’s hand entwined tightly with Abigail’s, a mother-daughter silhouette standing directly before Elijah and Klaus. They had been separated for ten years, and Bonnie blamed Elijah for that. She blamed both of the Originals.

Even as she watched, the witches raised their hands and thunder rumbled in the air, a deep, rolling sound that reverberated through her. The fire burned higher.

“Bonnie!” she called, one desperate, final time. “Bonnie, please stop!”

*

  
The flames were encroaching on them. Little by little, they inched forward, eating up the grass, the ground, the air. The witches continued their chanting, and all Elijah could see were hostile faces.

He and his brother backed away.

“Really though,” Klaus huffed. “Back-up plan. Now would be a good time.”

Elijah gritted his teeth. “You may want to think of some better last words, brother.”

“Oh, you’re joking.”

He wished that he were. He looked around again, searching for something, anything that might save them. Beyond the flames, beyond the witches, Elijah found the one person who wasn’t willing them both to die: Elena. The wind gusted strands of hair over her face, and her eyes were glazed with tears.

 _I’m sorry_ , her expression told him. _I’m sorry._

The Salvatores had her. They always did. She couldn’t help.

*

  
Elena couldn’t look away. The circle of fire was drawing inexorably inwards, the two figures trapped inside standing shoulder to shoulder.

Bonnie hadn’t heard her. Neither Stefan nor Damon would listen. She was as trapped as Elijah was, and now she would have to watch him die too.

She felt tired, drained, spent. She was sick of having to struggle all the time, to fight for every single decision, to make her voice heard.

Elijah didn’t take his eyes off her. That was one thing that no one could take away: the connection they shared. Nothing could take that away.

She held her breath.

*

  
Klaus stiffened at his side. The flames were licking at their feet; there was nowhere else to go. He was standing on the brink of a volcano.

“I was never supposed to die,” Klaus whispered. “I’m immortal.” His voice rose to a shriek. “I’m _immortal_!”

“Well,” said Elijah, trying to sound calm, so as not to betray his fear – he would be damned if he wasn’t going to die with his dignity intact, “I suppose we shall go together.”

He wanted to say something to Elena, even if she couldn’t hear him, because she was still watching him and this would be his last chance, his last word... The words caught in his throat. Klaus had turned and grabbed his shoulders – his brother’s eyes burned into him, bright, fierce, so unlike Elena’s – the heat was unbearable–

“No,” Klaus growled. “No.”

He felt his flesh beginning to sizzle, the expensive leather of his shoes burning away. His back, his hands, all scorching; he couldn’t breathe–

Pain. Not the torture of the fire that he could see reflected in his brother’s eyes. A sharp, horribly familiar pain in his chest: cold, numbing. Elijah gasped, looked down–

A silver dagger.

“Our family are alive,” Klaus whispered. “Save them.”

He twisted the dagger, and the last thing Elijah felt was his brother’s hand on his shoulder before he slipped away.

*

  
The feeling was... indescribable. Intoxicating. All the more so because it was shared: Bonnie had never felt so _connected_ to a group of people. Ever since Grams had died, she had practised her craft in solitude. She hadn’t enjoyed it.

But tonight she revelled in it, and she revelled in being part of something bigger than herself. The faces around her were all rapt with concentration, all focused on the same goal. The moon was almost past its apex; this, now, was the height of her power, and she felt a righteous satisfaction as she watched the flames consume the two Original vampires. Klaus didn’t go quietly. His brother collapsed first, and Klaus roared in pain, bellowed at the world, at them, at her:

“I will destroy you, Bonnie! Mark my words – I will _haunt_ you–”

But the fire seared his flesh, and though Bonnie was shaken for a moment – the hatred in his eyes was almost palpable – her mother tightened her hold on her hand, and she completed the final words of the spell.

Lights danced in front of her eyes. Klaus’s cries were abruptly cut off as he too was consumed by the flames. Like a light bulb being blown, the fire went out. Bonnie stood still, breathing in quick, shallow breaths. She could smell the smoke from the fire and something else, something worse: the charred, acrid smell of burnt flesh. The air was full of ash.

They’d done it. They’d taken on the oldest vampires in the world, and won.

Behind her, someone was sobbing.

*

  
“That’s it,” said Isobel.

The way she said it, Jenna couldn’t tell if this was a victory or not. “Is he dead?”  
To her, the woods were quiet, filled only with the usual sounds of bugs chirping and the bubbling of the nearby river. She only had Isobel’s word to go by for what was going on out there. It was awful; her stomach wasn’t just churning, it was practically eating itself up with worry and impatience.

Slowly, Isobel nodded.

Jenna couldn’t stand it anymore. She fumbled with her bag, took out a flashlight and a stake – hey, she’d come prepared – and started walking. But she had only gone a few steps before Isobel appeared silently in front of her. Jenna flinched, but held her ground.

“I have to go to her.”

“I know,” said Isobel. “You’re Elena’s guardian. That’s the difference between you and me. I may be her mother, but I’m not part of this family. Take care of her, Jenna.”

She touched Jenna’s arm, a light, quick touch, smiling – and was that a catch in her voice? Jenna blinked, unsure how to respond. Of course that was all the time the vampire needed to disappear.

Alone, she took a deep breath to steel herself, and set off again. She was heading roughly in the direction that she had seen Katherine disappear in, navigating partly by memory, partly by instinct. She wasn’t unafraid; in fact, she became more petrified with every step she took. What if she ran into a hostile vampire? What if Klaus wasn’t really dead? What if she simply got lost and wandered in circles around the woods until she had to suffer the humiliation of calling someone to rescue her?

But soon enough, she spotted a thin trail of smoke rising up from the trees, and adjusted her course towards it.

Jenna stepped into the clearing and saw two things. The first was the witches, congregated in two small groups. The Martins were trying to comfort a sobbing girl. Evidently whatever they were doing wasn’t working, because Jonas passed his hand over the girl’s forehead and she sank into his arms, either unconscious or asleep. The other witches stood to one side, some watching, others in murmured conversation. They all looked exhausted.

But it was the second thing that really grabbed her attention. She moved her flashlight over the clearing and caught the back of a leather jacket: Damon. He looked at her, nostrils flared, before turning back to the two figures on the ground. Stefan was stooped over Elena, his hand at her back. Elena was crying.

If Jenna had the advantage of vampire speed, she would have flown over there in an instant. As it was, she had to make do with running, stumbling over the uneven ground with no care for herself.

“Elena!” She shoved Stefan aside unceremoniously, dropping down beside her niece. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

Damon folded his arms as Stefan backed off to stand next to his brother. “She’ll be fine.”

Elena reached for her and Jenna hugged her tightly, relieved beyond words that her niece was okay. She was obviously shaken, and who wouldn’t be after the ordeal she’d been through, but she was okay. She’d survived. It looked like they all had.

“He’s dead,” Elena whispered.

Jenna could feel Elena’s tears dampening her hair. “I know. Thank God.”

“Tyler.” Her niece shook her head, barely managing to choke out the next word. “Elijah.”

“Tyler?” Jenna swallowed. So they hadn’t all made it. She heard footsteps crunching twigs and leaves underfoot, and looked up.

It was Bonnie. “There’s a dead wolf in one of the circles,” she said. “We think that it’s Tyler.”

“And Elijah?”

She hadn’t been hearing things, had she? Elena had said Elijah. How had the most powerful vampire among them lost his life in the fight against Klaus?

Bonnie’s expression was stony. “Come and see.”

*

  
Elena was grateful beyond measure to Jenna; her aunt had turned up exactly when she needed her. She didn’t need Stefan’s soft words or comforting arms just then – no, she didn’t want them, because it all sounded so hollow. She didn’t want Damon, and she didn’t know if she could even look at Bonnie, who was avoiding her eyes, choosing to address Jenna instead.

She stood up unsteadily. Jenna offered her a supporting arm, and together the two of them followed Bonnie. Elena glanced back; Damon had already gone straight to the Martins, clearly anticipating another potential threat, while Stefan simply watched from a distance.

She couldn’t look as they moved past the wolf corpse, though Jenna made a noise of distress.

Instead, she fixed her gaze on the blackened circle, smoke still rising from what looked like a charred husk in the middle. It was hard to be sure. Jenna had the flashlight, but it only took a murmured request for her to hand it over. Elena didn’t know if she wanted to look. But she had seen enough tonight to give her nightmares for the rest of her life. One more wouldn’t make much difference.

“Don’t,” Bonnie warned her. “The ground is still too hot.”

It was the first thing she had said to her directly. Elena looked at her best friend, and felt her mouth tremble. “Didn’t you hear me? Before you killed them both?”

“I’m sorry,” said Bonnie. “But it was our only chance. I had to.”

Elena didn’t know how to respond. She shook her head, stepping away from both Jenna and Bonnie, and approached the circle alone. Her heart was hammering. She could feel the heat through her boots, but it was bearable. She picked her way forward, the beam of the flashlight flickering this way and that. There was something there... Something more than a pile of ashes.

Was it a body? She shifted the flashlight down, and a glint of silver caught her eye. It was the handle of a blade, charred, but still distinct in its shape and design.

“Elena!”

That was Bonnie calling her, voice sharp and anxious. In a moment they’d all be upon her. Elena knelt down, reaching out to grab what she thought was a shoulder – she pulled, twisting the body around, and a shock of excitement jolted through her when she recognized a familiar profile: even dead and covered in ash, she could tell it was him. Elijah had been daggered but his body had survived the fire, so did that mean–

With both hands, she grasped the handle of the dagger and yanked, crying out in pain as she did so – it burned.

“Elena!”

This time it was Stefan; she looked up to find him almost on her and scrambled for the blade, which she had dropped. She found it, wincing as she flattened her palm over it and felt her skin blister.

He looked from her to the body. “What have you done?”

She scrabbled back, breathing hard. Damon had appeared on the other side of Elijah’s body, frowning as he looked down at it. Bonnie ran up to them too, Jenna not far behind, and she could see that she had attracted the attention of the other witches.

She sat up, cleared her throat. Her mouth was dry. She didn’t know if she could manage more than a croak, but she spoke up as loudly as she could anyway, so that everyone could hear.

“Elijah and I had a deal. I won’t let him die.”

Damon hissed a profanity and Elena tensed, sure that he was about to restrain her again. But instead he froze, and a moment later, she realized why: Elijah gasped back into life, his body jerking up, limbs twitching. It wasn’t graceful; he looked worse than he had when she’d pulled him out of the lake – he was covered in ash and grime, his suit in tatters, almost completely gone in places. But despite all that there was still a raw air of power about him; Damon and Stefan backed away; everyone else was frozen in position. Bonnie looked both grim and frightened, her mouth a thin line.

“Bonnie,” said Damon tightly.

She shook her head. “I can’t – we already used up all our magic...”

Someone else stepped forward instead. Maddox strode past Bonnie, his face a mask of intensity, and made to snatch the dagger away from her. Elena jerked back, and then Elijah was upon Maddox; he snapped the witch’s neck, killing him in an instant. Several people gasped; Elena stared, wide-eyed; she would never get used to just how quickly people could die.

Elijah straightened up, glancing between Damon and Stefan who looked like they were readying to attack. “Go on,” he said softly. “Any of you.”

They didn’t move. No one moved. She had to do something before someone else got themselves killed. Elena staggered to her feet, still clutching the dagger in her burnt hand. Silently, she held out the dagger to Elijah, who took it.

His eyes swept over the group. “Where is Klaus?”

Damon replied. “I think you’re covered in him.”

For the first time, Elijah seemed to notice the state of his clothes. He lifted a hand, staring at the dirt and ash that coated his skin.

“We did it, Elijah,” said Elena, reaching out to touch his arm. He seemed almost in a stupor. “We finally killed him.”

“Yes,” he replied, distantly. He looked at her, and she saw the sorrow in his eyes. Tonight hadn’t felt like a victory for either of them. She tried a smile anyway, because whatever else had happened, Klaus was still dead. It didn’t fit right; Elijah smiled back and that didn’t look right on him either, not with the ashes still clinging to his face. Her hand was still on his arm; he reached out to take it, curling his fingers around hers in a strangely formal gesture.

“Thank you, Elena.”

He inclined his head; she felt his fingers slipping away from hers... Elena opened her mouth to protest, to say something, anything, but it was too late. He was gone.

*

  
Vampires didn’t get tired, but Damon felt drained anyway when he trudged back into the Salvatore boarding house, his brother equally heavy of foot beside him. They had delivered Elena safely home, at which point Jenna had insisted that they leave her alone. Now he just wanted this night to be over.

Stefan sighed, and Damon patted him on the back. “Hey. Guess what? We won.”

Stefan gave a weary smile. “Yeah. We did.”

“Sure, Elijah getting away was a little irritating, but at least he’s not the Original who wants to sacrifice Elena in a creepy blood ritual.”

“Right,” Stefan agreed.

Damon frowned at his brother. His attempts to look on the bright side didn’t seem to be working. There was something that Stefan wasn’t saying, he was sure of that. He had that deep broody look that meant he was thinking too hard about things, rather than saying whatever it was that troubled him out loud. Before Damon could ask, however, they entered the parlour and were greeted by none other than Katherine.

She waved a bottle at them, grinning. “Surprise!” Contrary to their sombre disposition, Katherine looked positively perky. Even her curls looked bouncier than usual.

Meanwhile, Stefan’s sigh was even wearier. “Katherine.”

“Wow, you look glum. Did Elena fall into a ditch and die on the way home?”

The looks they gave her were answer enough.

“Well, then. Come on, smile. Have a drink with me.”

Damon glanced at his brother before they both approached her. “What’s the occasion?”

“Klaus is dead and we’re alive. I think that calls for a celebration.” She raised the bottle again. Vintage, Damon noticed, stolen from their cellar. Well, he’d expect nothing less. “I didn’t have time to make ‘Klaus is dead’ celebration banners, so champagne will have to do. Isobel sends her love, by the way.”

“I’m sure she does,” said Damon dryly.

“You’re awfully chirpy,” Stefan added. “You are aware that Elijah survived, aren’t you, Katherine? Last I checked he still wants you dead.”

Katherine poured them a glass of bubbly. They’d failed to wipe the smile off her face. “Oh, I’m not worried about Elijah. We made up. We’ll be besties in no time.”

She was lying. He was fairly sure she was lying. Damon shrugged. Right now, he didn’t care. Katherine was right: Klaus was dead. And as far as he was concerned, no one important had died. This was cause for a celebration.

He accepted the glass, and raised a toast. “To outliving Klaus.”

Stefan and Katherine joined him, glasses clinking together. “To outliving Klaus!”

Katherine leaned against the mantelpiece, the fire burning low in the grate, and sipped her champagne. Her eyes glinted; she was wearing a triumphant expression that Damon normally associated with losing out yet again to her machinations, but this time felt different. This time, they were sharing in the same victory.

“And to freedom,” Katherine added.

“To freedom,” Damon echoed, raising his glass to her.

Stefan followed a moment later. “To freedom.” He nodded at Katherine. “You saved our lives out there.”

“You’re welcome.”

“It’s funny,” Stefan went on. “Before you turned up at the sacrifice ritual, we thought you were safely locked up in a Mystic Falls prison cell. Caroline was watching over you. You didn’t hurt her, did you?”

Damon blinked. Oh. He hadn’t thought of that. They’d found Alaric and Jeremy safe and well at the Gilbert house, which pretty much accounted for everyone. He’d assumed that Caroline would be fine, given that she wasn’t even involved in the sacrifice ritual.

Katherine shrugged. “No. I just threw her and her mom in the prison cell instead.”

Well, there was an answer. He rolled his eyes. Yet again Caroline had managed to mess things up. Granted, he was okay with it this time since if Katherine hadn’t escaped, they would probably all be dead, but he was still going to mentally add it as a black mark on her track record.

Stefan sighed.

“Don’t look at me,” said Damon. “I bailed her out of the last two emergency situations she got herself into. I think it’s your turn.”

His brother paused a moment before leaving his champagne flute on the mantelpiece. “I’ll... go make sure she’s okay.”

He glanced at Damon, who understood the silent question in his eyes. Would he be okay dealing with Katherine? Damon gave a quick nod.

“See you later,” Stefan added, and departed.

Damon took a moment to adjust, pouring himself more champagne, taking a sip and looking around the room – looking anywhere but at Katherine. True to form, she had already sidled a step closer to him. She tilted her head, liquid eyes looking up at him from beneath her eyelashes, dark curls spilling over her shoulders. He had to give it to her: she had sultry down to an art form.

“Katherine,” he said.

She smiled. “What?”

He sucked in a breath through his teeth. “You know what...”

She raised her eyebrows, but he didn’t complete the sentence. Instead, he took the glass from her hand, and set it aside along with his. His fingers curled around hers, caressing her skin. Katherine didn’t blink. They were caught together, gazes locked on each other for a split second where both knew what was about to happen – and then Damon moved, Katherine lifted her chin, lips parted; he fell into her, her mouth, her hands, her body lithe and sinuous; and she gasped into his mouth, _yes_ –

The bottle of champagne fell to the floor, forgotten.

*

  
Home. Elena hadn’t thought that she would ever see it again. Jeremy and Alaric had been waiting for her, and Jeremy had pulled her into an embrace so tight, she thought she might choke.

She was exhausted. All her joints ached. It only took a few minutes for Jenna to insist that she go to bed already, and Elena didn’t protest.

She washed, changed, and sat down on her bed, remembering to text Caroline to make sure that she was okay. Caroline didn’t keep her waiting; a reply flashed up less than a minute later.

_So happy you’re ok. Talk tmrrow._

Elena rubbed her eyes, sighing. Tomorrow she would have to tell Caroline about Tyler and Matt. She didn’t know if she could face that. She didn’t want to think about any of it. She stared at her phone screen, wondering if she should just get rid of Tyler and Matt’s numbers already. Get it over with. She even scrolled down her contact list to find them, but a different name made her pause.

Elijah.

Had he gone too? She had brought him back to life twice over, but he had achieved his mission in Mystic Falls. He had killed Klaus, and he had said himself that he had no reason to remain in town after that. She might never see him again.

Although of course, she did have his number... Elena bit her lip. She very nearly pressed the call button before she came to her senses, shaking her head. She was too emotionally drained to speak to anyone tonight.

She climbed into bed, buried her face under the covers, and slept.


	35. Dissolution

Damon’s phone buzzed. He groaned, shielding his eyes against the morning sun filtering through the blinds, and squinted at the caller ID.

“Liz. Early call?”

“Early enough. Caroline tells me you pulled things off on your end. We didn’t do so well.”

“Huh. What’s the problem?”

Liz sighed. “Katherine escaped. So that means we still have a vampire loose in this town, and I have no idea where she is. Do you?”

He resisted the urge to laugh as Katherine stirred sleepily beside him, snuggling against his bare chest. She looked up, and Damon transferred his phone to his other ear when she reached up with a wicked smile to trail kisses along his jaw and earlobe, one hand flattening against his torso.

“Yeah, Katherine’s not here. She bailed as soon as she learned that Klaus was dead.”

Liz’s voice was sharp. “You’re sure?”

His gaze met Katherine’s, who gave a small nod. She settled her head back down on his shoulder and listened, twisting a lock of hair around her finger.

“Well, I’m sure that if she does stick around, we’ll know about it.”

He heard another sigh on the other end of the line. “I need to file a report on the Klaus situation. I want you in my office asap.”

“Careful, Sheriff. You’re sounding a little needy. I like a woman who plays hard to get.”

“ _Damon_.”

“Sorry.” He cleared his throat. “No problem. I’ll be right there.”

He ended the call and returned the phone to the nightstand before leaning back with his head against the pillow. Frankly, he was in no rush. His fingers combed idly through Katherine’s hair. Of course, Katherine had other ideas. She shifted, draping her body over his so that her elbows were crossed against his chest, and rested her chin on her hands as she smirked at him.

“Look at you being the sheriff’s bitch.”

“I happen to like Liz,” Damon told her.

“So what are you going to say when you meet her?” Katherine’s eyes were wide, all innocently questioning. “Nothing that will get her killed, I hope.”

“I’ll tell her that you’ve left town. Which you will do.”

She smiled, sitting up, and he gripped a hand over her hipbone, holding her in place above him. “You know, I’d like to have a partner along for the ride.” Her head turned, looking at something directly behind her. “Hey, Stefan. Would you like to join me?”

Well, that was an immediate buzzkill. Damon rolled his eyes, shifting enough so that he could see his brother standing in the doorway. That was difficult given that Katherine was straddling him, the sheets barely clinging to her hips. Only her long hair preserved what modicum of decency she had – not that she’d care.

“Caroline’s here,” said Stefan quietly. “She wants to see you, Damon.”

“Does she?” Damon made no effort to move. “I’m popular with the ladies today.”

Stefan’s eyes flicked from Damon to Katherine. His expression remained impassive. “I’ll tell her you’ll be down in a minute.”

He vanished. Damon sighed and finally tried to push Katherine off him, although that was easier said than done; the sheets were all tangled up and she resisted him anyway, giggling as she pulled him over in a heap. They ended up nose to nose, swathed in white sheets, and Katherine seemed small enough that he might lose her were she not pressed so tightly against him. The familiarity of it all gave him déjà vu, remembering how delightful Katherine had been over a century ago in her fine gowns and corsets. He had thought her the most beautiful creature in the world back then.

He stared at her. “You haven’t changed at all.”

“Of course I haven’t,” was her response. “I’m still the girl you loved.”

He was sure there were any number of scathing put-downs to that, but he couldn’t think of any. He settled for a clipped, “Come on,” and Katherine allowed him to pull her up.

So they went to meet Caroline together, because Damon didn’t really care what anyone thought of him sleeping with Katherine, and besides, he was sure the look on her face would be worth it.

She was waiting in the entrance hall with Stefan. Just as he had expected, her jaw dropped. “Oh my God.”

Stefan was wearing a resigned sort of look, like someone had just shot his puppy but he knew that there was nothing he could have done about it. He leaned over and murmured an apology to Caroline.

Before Damon could make a smug comment, however, Katherine spoke.

“Caroline,” she said, suddenly breathless, eyes wide. She was tucked against his body, handily covering him up – and, he belatedly realized, looking all flustered trying to cover herself with the bed sheet. Her voice had taken on a distinctly Elena tone. “Oh God – I’m sorry. Damon didn’t tell me you were here.”

“Katherine.” He smacked her wrist. “Ignore her. What can I do for you today, Caroline? If you want an all-vampire threesome, bedroom’s upstairs...”

“Wow,” said Caroline. He took that as a no. “Are you seriously parading _her_ around right after Elena almost got sacrificed?”

“Trust me, I’m an improvement in every way,” said Katherine, who was obviously enjoying herself a little too much.

Damon shrugged. “Elena survived. We won. Katherine and I had celebratory sex. Don’t tell me you spent the night in a mood.”

That riled her up. She looked like she was going to burst: chest heaving, fists clenched, eyes too bright. “Matt and Tyler are dead. I am not in a celebratory mood, because believe it or not, our problems didn’t end with Klaus’s death and I am this close to turning it off, so why don’t you just shut up and listen?”

Oh, of course. Her boyfriends were dead. That would put anyone in a mood. He tried to look vaguely sympathetic.

“She’s emotional,” Katherine commented.

“People she cared about died. It happens.”

Stefan folded his arms. “I think you should listen to what she has to say, Damon.”

“Hey, I’m all ears.”

It wasn’t his fault they were dead. Besides, if she’d rather grieve over her werewolf and human squeezes, Damon had no problem with that. He frowned. Why was she even here?

“Just for the record,” said Caroline, “I’m telling you this for Stefan’s benefit, not yours.” She took a deep breath. “My mom knows that you and Stefan are vampires.”

Damon blinked. Katherine had gone still in his arms, but she glanced up, looking to see how he’d react, he supposed. “Did you tell her?”

“No! She figured it out. Right after she’d visited Katherine in the cell, by the way,” Caroline added, shooting Katherine an accusing look.

Katherine was indignant. “I didn’t say a word. Accuse me again and I’ll break your spine.”

He didn’t know what it was with these two. The hatred between them charged the air. Well, he did know: Katherine had killed Caroline, which was usually a bad start to any relationship. But Caroline shut up immediately, a result he’d often wished that he could achieve himself. Unfortunately right now he needed her to talk.

“Well, that’s great timing,” he said. “Your mom just called. On a scale of one to ten, how likely is she to attempt an ambush?”

Caroline thought about it. “Three. I think she’d be willing to talk. She’s okay with me, and I told her that you’re both the good guys. Even though you’re not.”

“She trusts you,” said Stefan, looking at him. “I think you need to talk to her.”

As usual, his brother wanted him to do the dirty work. But in this case he was right; Damon considered Liz a friend. Whether or not she accepted him as a vampire, he would deal with it.

“All right,” he said. He nudged Katherine, prompting her to look up at him. “Beat it. No one wants you here anymore.”

She pouted, but then shrugged. “Fine. It’s been fun, but I really should get going anyway. I’ll see you around.”

“Preferably not,” said Damon, but she disappeared in a blur even as he said it – not out of the door, but upstairs. He’d give her five minutes tops to get dressed and get out of the house before he made her leave. In the meantime, Damon tied the loose sheet around his waist.

“Are you gonna be at your mom’s house?” he asked Caroline.

Caroline nodded.

“Then I’ll see you there.”

That was the cue for Caroline to leave. She murmured a quick goodbye to Stefan, who set a hand on her shoulder, before also disappearing. Damon watched this with interest. His brother was ever the fair protector to maidens far and wide, but Caroline seemed to be relying on him more and more.

“Good show, Stefan,” he said. “Girl loses two love interests in one fell swoop, and here you are to be her shoulder to cry on. Watch out; she’ll be falling in love with you before their bodies turn cold.”

Stefan sighed, leaning against the doorway. “What are you doing, Damon?”

“I should think that’s obvious.”

“Why?” said Stefan. “Why Katherine of all people, after everything she’s done? She is not a substitute for Elena, Damon. She won’t play nice. She won’t be what you want her to be.”

“I know exactly what she is,” said Damon. “That’s the beauty of it. I think you’re projecting, brother. Weren’t you drawn to Elena because she looks like Katherine? I know I was.”

“You just can’t get over me, can you?” That was Katherine, stalking down the staircase fully dressed. She smiled as she approached, looking at each of them in turn. “A goodbye kiss? For old time’s sake.”

Damon shrugged. “For old time’s sake.”

Stefan turned away, raising his eyes to the heavens as Katherine leaned up to kiss Damon on the mouth. The kiss was brief and almost gentle, but it held the promise of more. If he chose to, he knew that he could seek Katherine out.

She approached Stefan next, and Damon folded his arms, watching dispassionately as Katherine coaxed Stefan into a very reluctant – and very chaste – kiss on the cheek. “Goodbye, Stefan,” she murmured, and her expression was soft.

The two brothers stood together as Katherine walked away. She didn’t look back, and they didn’t say anything. Damon couldn’t say what his brother was feeling, but then he could hardly say what he was feeling. He wasn’t jealous. He had gotten over being Katherine’s second choice. He had gotten over being a lovesick fool when it came to Katherine too, which meant that he could look at her with open eyes and a clear head, and she wouldn’t be able to hurt him.

If you didn’t care, you couldn’t get hurt. That was Katherine’s philosophy. Damon thought it had its perks too.

*

  
If there was one thing Elena was familiar with, it was going through the motions. She climbed out of bed, she brushed her teeth, she got dressed; she went through her entire morning routine without thinking until she realized that nobody else had come downstairs yet.

Frowning, Elena put down her coffee, and then sighed in relief when Jenna walked into the kitchen.

“Oh – Elena. You didn’t have to get up. I don’t think anyone was expecting you to turn up to school today.”

“I’m glad to know you’re showing proper concern about my poor attendance.”

“You have a good reason and you’re not taking drugs. That’s all I need to know.” Jenna paused in the middle of getting herself a coffee. “Are you okay? I mean, stupid question, I know you’re not, but...”

“I’ll be fine,” said Elena automatically. She turned the TV on before Jenna could ask any more questions, but it proved a poor distraction.

“...Following the tragic death of high school student Matt Donovan, age seventeen, in a car accident, Mystic Falls High has been struck by yet another tragedy. Fellow classmate and the only son of Mayor Carol Lockwood, Tyler Lockwood was found dead last night in the woods surrounding Mystic Falls. Police have yet to confirm the cause of death. Well-wishers have already begun gathering at the Lockwood residence to...”

She pressed the mute button. On the screen, the news journalist – Andie Star, a name that Elena recognized with a jolt but then couldn’t quite remember why she should have that reaction – continued her report, no doubt reminding her audience that Carol Lockwood had already lost her husband, who had perished in a fire after a gas leak at the old Gilbert property, and that Tyler Lockwood, quarterback, varsity student and one of the school’s most popular students, would be sorely missed by all who knew him.

None of it would be accurate. The cause of death was a lie, the platitudes were a lie, all of it was a lie. How many broadcasts like this had she watched?

“Elena,” said Jenna softly. She looked up. Jenna had taken the seat next to her. “We’re here for you, okay?”

Elena nodded. “I know.”

“Morning,” said Jeremy, who finally chose that moment to walk in. He paused at the entrance to the kitchen, and jerked his head over to the hallway. “We’ve got incoming.”

It was then that the sound of the doorbell ringing registered with Elena. She stood up. “I’ll get it.”

Jeremy let her walk past. He gave her a concerned look along the way, but Elena didn’t let her stride falter. She knew that the only thing she could do was get through the next few days – weeks – and wait for things to get better.

She opened the door, and her heart sank. “Stefan.”

He smiled at her. “Hey.”

She realized that he was here to offer his support – of course he was, that was what Stefan always did, and she had loved him for it. Whenever she needed him, he was there for her. She brushed a few strands of hair behind her ears and wondered why her insides felt like jelly.

“Stefan... I’m not sure now is a good time...”

“I know. I... I was worried about you.”

She tried a reassuring smile. “Hey, I survived, remember?”

He nodded, looking down. There was an awkward pause. Elena didn’t know what to say, and she could see that Stefan was struggling to know how to react too. Finally, he looked back up at her again. “Can we talk? Please?”

She sighed, but held the door open. Stefan stepped inside, and then, tentatively, reached out to wrap an arm around her shoulder and draw her into an embrace. Elena accepted the hug, resting her head against his shoulder. It felt easy to do that, to let herself sink into him, rely on him to be her support. But it felt wrong too, and she bit her lip, swallowing.

“I’m sorry,” Stefan murmured. “I’m so sorry...”

When they moved apart, Stefan’s hand brushed against hers, but she shied away on the pretence of shutting the door behind him.

“Sit down,” she said, gesturing over to the living room. She could hear Jenna and Jeremy in the kitchen, but she trusted them not to interrupt.

She sat down opposite him. Stefan gestured at her. “You’re not wearing your necklace.”

“Oh...” Elena’s hand went unconsciously to her throat. “I think Klaus took it. I don’t know what happened to it.”

“Well, it’ll probably turn up. I was just thinking... I found it when I was in a very dark place. It might seem stupid, but for me that necklace represented hope. Love. It reminded me that no matter how bad things got, I came out the other side.” He shook his head, smiling wryly. “I’m rambling. You know all that, you’ve done it before. It’s a journey that never gets easier, huh?”

She swallowed. “Well, you’d know.”

It wasn’t going to be easier this time. Especially not with Matt... She’d known him her entire life, and they’d always been close. People had called them inseparable. She loved him, even if not romantically in the way he had wanted her to, and to think that she was never going to see or talk to him again... He was another empty place in her heart, right by her parents.

Stefan leaned forward, his tone earnest. “Elena... I’m sorry. I wish there was something I could have done. We should have saved Matt. We should have stopped the ritual before Tyler was sacrificed.”

Elena shook her head. “It wasn’t your fault. Don’t blame yourself for things out of your control.”

He paused. “Are you angry with me?”

“For what?”

“You wanted to save Elijah...”

Elena tensed. It wasn’t a topic she wanted to talk about so soon. Actually, if she thought about it, she was kind of bitter about it. Elijah had survived, but there had been no lack of people trying to kill him. She expected Stefan at least to listen to her. Nobody had listened to her.

“Well, we had a disagreement,” she said. “I guess there wasn’t time for you to reason me out of it. Thank God Damon was there to restrain me, right?”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have let Damon do that. Damon, he... He had a plan; he was determined to follow through with it.”

“I know what Damon does. But you just stood there, Stefan. You didn’t do anything.”

“I was trying to protect you. You’d almost killed yourself, Elena, I wasn’t even sure if you were in your right mind – Elijah had just compelled you.”

She saw where this was going. “Elijah took my compulsion away. Did you really think I wouldn’t have wanted to save him?”

He paused, buried his head in his hands for a moment, and then shook his head. “This goes back to you having feelings for him, doesn’t it? I feel like I’m losing you, Elena, I... I don’t know. I want us to work this out.”

“It’s not that,” she said. “It’s not even what happened last night. I know you did everything you could to save me. I could have lost you, and I don’t know what that would have done to me. I just... I don’t want to be with you right now.” She bit her lip. “I’m sorry. After everything you’ve done for me...”

She felt ungrateful. She felt terribly ungrateful.

“Elena.” He spoke softly. She knew that he was trying to make this easy for her. She felt worse. “I don’t want you to be with me out of some sense of obligation. I want you to be with me because you love me.”

She paused. “I know.”

It was enough. Stefan nodded silently. He seemed resigned. But she knew that she was breaking his heart.

Finally, he stood up. “If you ever need somebody to talk to...”

She didn’t know when she would be able to take him up on that offer, but she managed a smile anyway. “Thank you.”

He retreated, and Elena lay down on the couch, feeling like the most awful person in the entire universe. That was it. She’d broken up with Stefan. It didn’t even feel like a relief, she just felt... hollow. She curled up and shut her eyes, as if that would help her shut out the world too.

*

  
Three empty blood bags lay at the foot of her bed. Caroline discarded a fourth, flicking her hand and watching it float to the floor. She was binge drinking. That probably wasn’t good. She felt heavy and bloated (did vampires get bloated?), and most of all she felt tired.

“I hate being a vampire,” she mumbled at the ceiling.

“Caroline?” Her mom knocked at the door.

Caroline glanced over. “Come in.”

She didn’t bother to hide the blood bags. Her mother twisted her mouth when she saw them. “There’s a memorial at the Lockwood mansion this weekend. It’s for Matt and Tyler.”

“Great,” Caroline mumbled. “I’ll be there.”

Liz hesitated, looking again at the empty blood bags. “Is there anything I can get you?”

“No. I just needed a moment to wallow before Damon arrives.”

Liz blinked. “How did you know about that?”

“Heard you. Please don’t stake him.”

“I’ll try not to.”

A sound from downstairs alerted her. Caroline groaned, pulling herself up. “Speak of the devil.”

*

  
It was her dad who told Bonnie that Abby wanted to see her. All the other witches had gone. Some had said goodbye; others had simply vanished. She hoped to keep in touch with Lucy, who had finally left her phone number, but otherwise the solidarity they’d felt together the night before had all but vanished.

Winning didn’t feel quite as triumphant as she had hoped.

Bonnie knocked on her mother’s door nervously.

“Come in,” Abby called.

She entered to find that her mother was already folding up her clothes into a small suitcase. Packing. Getting ready to go. A lump rose in her throat.

“You’re leaving?”

“I have a job to get back to.” Abby looked up, and her face softened at Bonnie’s expression. “But that’s not what I wanted to tell you. I can’t stay, Bonnie. Your dad and me... It’s been too long for us to work it out. But I talked to him and he’s agreed in principle that you could come and visit me in Manhattan. If you wanted.”

She caught her breath. For a moment, she couldn’t speak. “Really?”

“Yes.” Abby snapped open her purse, and handed over a business card to Bonnie. “Here’s my card. I’ve written my home address on the back, so you know where to find me. I have a few work things to deal with first, but I’ll check my schedule and see when I can book you in.”

Bonnie felt dazed. She stared at the card, and then at her mother. “Thank you. You know, I wasn’t sure if you...” She stopped, a sob choking her throat. “I’ve just been so alone, all this time...”

“Oh, God, don’t,” said Abby, but there was no malice in her tone. Bonnie couldn’t help herself; she burst into tears, and her mother placed a slightly awkward arm around her shoulders. It wasn’t like when they had performed the spell that killed Klaus together. Her mother was back in her business clothes; her posture was stiff, there was a certain distance between them.

But she wanted to close that gap. She did want to get to know her daughter after all.

Once her sobbing subsided, Abby stepped back, sitting down next to the suitcase. “You should know something first,” she said. “I don’t know what you expect from me, but I’m not Grams. I have my own life and this was a crazy break from it that I don’t want to go back to. I’m not a witch anymore. I can’t help you with that. I can’t help you with the vampires. But if you wanted to get away...”

Bonnie nodded. “You have no idea how often I’ve wanted to get out of this. I hate it. I’ve always hated it.”

“Don’t forget what I said,” said Abby. “Grams probably taught you all about duty and responsibility. Witches are servants of nature, and all that nonsense. Don’t believe it. Do what’s right for you. It was because of witchcraft that I lost control of my own life. You can always choose differently.”

She closed the suitcase and snapped the hinges shut, standing up. Bonnie nodded again, breathless. “I won’t forget.”

She would take her mother’s words to heart. Even if Abby couldn’t help her with her magic, she was someone to talk to, someone who understood. Bonnie had so often felt trapped by her witchcraft.

For the first time in a long time, she felt free.

*

  
Caroline called the day before the memorial. It had been a tough week for all of them. Elena had barely been able to look Caroline in the eye at first. But she’d had to, to tell Caroline about Tyler’s last words, that Caroline had been the last person in his thoughts, that he loved her. Watching Caroline break down in front of her had been horrible.

Even worse was the guilt. She felt like it was her fault that Matt and Tyler were gone. It was because of her that the sacrifice had taken place at all.

Talking on the phone was a little easier. She injected a cheery note into her voice. “Hey, Caroline.”

“Elena! Hey. How are you?”

Elena shook her head, smiling. “How are you?”

“Oh, you know. Probably about the same as you.”

“Right.”

She moved over to her bed and lay down with her head on the pillow. They didn’t need to elaborate further. Elena knew exactly how Caroline was feeling.

Caroline cleared her throat. “Okay, so... Have you seen Bonnie?”

Elena grimaced. “No.”

She’d been avoiding Bonnie. Evidently, Caroline hadn’t failed to notice this.

“Well, I’ve been talking to her, and I know this is a really difficult time for all of us...”

“I don’t want to see her, Caroline.”

She could tell that she had correctly anticipated what Caroline had been about to say by the huff she heard at the other end of the phone. “And she didn’t want to see you, but tough luck. I’ll be damned if I’m going to Matt and Tyler’s memorial while my two best friends in the world are fighting.”

Elena sighed. “Look... I just need some time.”

“No. You are going to fix this. You are going to talk, and make up, and everything will be fine. I’ll make chilli hot pot.”

She laughed despite herself. “You’re terrible at cooking, Caroline.”

Caroline put on her brightest, most cajoling voice. “It’ll be spicy!”

There was no denying her in this mood. “Fine.”

Caroline was efficient. It was barely an hour later that she turned up with chilli ingredients and Bonnie in tow. Just in time for dinner, as Caroline was quick to point out. Her make-up was carefully done, her curls almost pristinely glossy. She had painted her nails, and she wore the brightest, fakest smile Elena had ever seen. Even for Caroline, this was trying too hard.

So obviously she wasn’t the only one putting on a front.

Meanwhile, Bonnie was much more subdued. When Caroline pulled her into a hug, Bonnie hung back, not saying anything. But Elena invited all of them in, and while Caroline excused herself to go make the chilli, Elena found herself sitting down with Bonnie in the living room.

Bonnie looked at her nails. She tried to figure out where to start.

“How’s your mom?”

Bonnie looked up. “Good. She’s back in New York, but she says that I can visit her.”

“Oh, good,” said Elena. “That’s great.” She paused, glancing towards the kitchen, and sighed. “It’s too soon for this.”

Bonnie shrugged. “You know Caroline. She’s Miss Fix-it.”

“There shouldn’t be anything to fix. I’m not mad at you, Bonnie. We’re best friends...”

“No, you are,” Bonnie corrected her. “We’ve avoided talking about it since Katherine first arrived, but the truth is, I don’t know what to say to you anymore. You always side with the vampires. Always.”

Elena shook her head. “That’s not true.”

“Yes, it is. There’s having a big heart, and then there’s just accepting people who are murderers. Do you know why I was late for our meeting with the Martins at the Grill?”

Elena blinked, completely thrown off. “No – I – what?”

“Because I ran into Damon,” said Bonnie pointedly. “He was being his usual self with his girlfriend, Andie, compelling her to do his dirty work for him, and she would still be his little mind slave if Caroline and I hadn’t done anything about it.”

Elena shook her head. “No – Damon wouldn’t do that.”

She felt like this conversation had already gone completely out of her control. She had imagined that Bonnie was angry because she had saved Elijah. She hadn’t thought that it might run deeper.

“Wouldn’t he? Did you forget what he did to Caroline already?”

She could only shake her head again, helplessly. “Why are we talking about Damon? What has he got to do with this?”

“Because he’s the perfect example of exactly what I’m talking about. The only reason I haven’t killed him yet is you, Elena. The only reason I haven’t killed Elijah is you. They’re still around because you love them and I love you, but there’s only so long I can stand back and watch you accept everything they do.”

It was like a blow to the stomach. Elena swallowed. “So what are you going to do?”

“I’m just warning you,” said Bonnie. “I’m going to do what I think is right. If that means doing something that you don’t want, like trying to take down Elijah at the sacrifice ritual, then so be it.”

For a moment, Elena didn’t know what to say. She had been unprepared for this; she felt like she was crumbling already and she had to take several deep breaths to compose herself. When she spoke, her voice came out as a choked whisper.

“And what about our friendship?”

“I don’t know.” Bonnie laughed, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. “I love you. I do. Maybe we should just forget what I said, and go on as normal. If all this supernatural craziness is really over, we don’t have to face these kinds of situations. We can be normal high school girls, best friends, cheerleader and ex-cheerleader...”

“Bonnie Bennett and Elena Gilbert.” She managed a smile. “There’s nothing that can separate us. Especially not some dumbass guy.”

“What dumbass guy?” Caroline peeped through the door, flicking her hair back. “Damon?”

“He’s one of them,” said Bonnie.

“I’ll say.” Caroline walked over and flopped on to the couch next to Elena, giving an exaggerated sigh. “Did you know that he slept with Katherine?”

Bonnie sat up straight in her seat. “What?”

Elena didn’t know how to respond. Her mouth fell open; she stared dumbly.

“I know, right?” Caroline made a face. “Gross.”

“How – how do you know?” Elena stammered.

“I saw them when I called at the boarding house a few days ago. Long story. But the good news is that Damon and my mom are still BFFs, so you know, that turned out okay.”

“I said he’d never change,” Bonnie muttered, and though she didn’t look at Elena, Elena had the distinct feeling that the comment was directed at her.

Annoyed, she changed the subject. “Is the chilli done?” she asked Caroline. “You haven’t left it to burn, have you?”

“I got Jenna on the case.” Caroline glanced between both of them. “I was hearing some tension. I didn’t like it.”

“None of us like it, Caroline,” said Bonnie. “And I didn’t want to talk about any of this right now, not with what just happened. But if we’re going to talk, I might as well be honest about it.”

“No,” said Elena. She was still reeling from the news about Damon, but if Bonnie was going to have the opportunity to air her grievances, Elena was going to make herself heard too. “I mean, I’m glad you’re being honest with me, Bonnie. I just don’t know what to do about it. I don’t know what to say to you either. Elijah and I had a deal. You didn’t just betray him when you broke it. You betrayed me too.”

“I get that you have some creepy personal attachment to him,” said Bonnie. “But I had to think of the bigger picture.”

Elena spluttered. “Creepy?”

“He’s like a thousand years old or something. By definition it’s creepy.”

“Okay,” said Caroline, holding out her hands as Elena turned scarlet and Bonnie leaned back, looking far too sure that she was right in Elena’s opinion, “maybe we can hold off the personal comments about the creepiness or otherwise of certain Originals. I really wanted you guys to just hug it out already. This can’t be that hard.”

Elena and Bonnie looked at each other. “I’m not against hugging,” said Elena. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize this had gotten so big between us.”

Bonnie shook her head. “I didn’t want it to be like this either. I’m sorry for dumping it all on you at the worst possible time.”

“Okay,” Caroline ordered. “Hug.”

It was Bonnie who reached forward to pull Elena into an embrace. Elena hugged her friend tightly, though she was aware that they hadn’t really resolved anything, and she thought Bonnie knew that too.

“As long as we can keep talking about this,” she whispered, “we’ll be okay. Right?”

Bonnie leaned back and smiled at her. “I think we can try that.”

So that was something. Caroline seemed to consider it a triumph, clapping her hands. “Great,” she chirped. “So who’s for chilli?”

*

  
Later that night, as Elena was getting ready for bed, she heard a soft rustling, as though a breeze had stirred the curtains. The back of her neck prickled. She put down her toothbrush, and tiptoed from the bathroom into her bedroom. It couldn’t be anything bad, she told herself. Klaus was dead.

She walked over to the window. It was shut, the latch pulled down. Elena closed the curtains. Sighing, she ran a hand through her hair, turned around, and froze.

Her bedroom door was ajar. Only by a few centimetres, but Elena was absolutely certain that she had shut it.

“Jeremy?” she called. She approached the door warily. Her heart had leaped into her mouth. She reached the door, opened it, and glanced back and forth down the hallway.

Nothing. Empty.

Maybe she was just imagining things. The door could have creaked open by itself. Or maybe she was misremembering.

“Paranoid,” she muttered, and closed the door shut.

“Well, paranoia has its uses.”

She jumped. She nearly cracked her elbow against the door handle, in fact, as she scrambled around to face the intruder, her heart racing.

Katherine was reclining on her bed. Her presence was disconcerting enough by itself, but somehow the thing that really chafed at Elena was the fact that Katherine had her teddy bear. What was it with vampires and her cuddly toys?

“You could do with tidying up,” Katherine advised her. “I took much better care of your things.”

Elena controlled her breathing. She was still alive, which meant that Katherine needed her for something. If she’d wanted her dead, she could have attacked long before now.

“How did you get in?”

The Martins had cast a spell on the house that was supposed to bar all vampires from entering. Katherine shouldn’t have been able to get in.

Katherine shrugged. “Jenna invited me.”

“Jenna...” Elena’s eyes widened. “You’re still compelling her.”

“Compulsion doesn’t wear off. I compelled Jenna to trust me and she will trust me for the rest of her natural life. All I had to do was ask. After that, it was easy to get her off vervain.”

So once again her aunt was unprotected. Elena found the courage to approach the vampire, folding her arms. “What do you want?”

Katherine sat up, leaning forward. “I need you to do me a favour.”

“What?”

“Elijah wants me dead, and something tells me that you’re the only one who could make him change his mind.”

She made a sound of disbelief. “Why would I do that? Elijah isn’t even here; I don’t know where he is. I’m not going to stop him from killing you.”

They stared at each other for a moment, and Elena could almost read the thoughts in her doppelgänger’s eyes. Katherine had gotten into Elena’s house, again, after everything they had done to prevent that. She still had a hold over Jenna. She could easily force Elena to comply in order to protect her family.

“Go on,” said Elena. “Threaten me. Say you’ll kill Jenna or Jeremy – it would only take a second, wouldn’t it? Now that you’re invited in. Kill me, even. That won’t stop Elijah coming after you.”

Katherine stood up, her movements graceful as ever as she approached Elena. Her eyes were dark, and for a moment Elena was afraid that she was going to call her bluff. Suddenly she couldn’t read the vampire at all. “I said a favour, Elena. No threats. I know you have no reason to trust me, but hear me out. Tell Elijah to spare my life, and I’ll remove Jenna’s compulsion. I’ll leave town. And I’ll leave you and your family in peace.”

She swallowed. “You already betrayed him.”

“So did you,” said Katherine, “and Elijah offered you a second chance. If I break my word, he’s free to kill me. That’s reason enough for me to keep it.”

Elena pressed her lips together. After everything that Katherine had put them through... But, she thought, if this was the only chance she was going to get to help Jenna... The offer was tempting.

“Then free Jenna now,” she said.

Katherine raised an eyebrow. “Before you talk to Elijah?”

“Yes.”

“How do I know you’ll keep your promise?”

“You’ll just have to trust me.”

It took effort, holding her ground like this when Katherine was standing mere inches away from her. Elena hoped that it wasn’t too obvious just how much effort it took her. Katherine was staring at her with narrowed eyes.

Finally, Katherine nodded. “Okay. We have a deal.”


	36. In Paradisum

Damon turned up at the memorial because he was expected to show his face, not because he actually cared. It was all appropriately sombre: like the average Lockwood gathering but even less fun. The guests had stopped short of wearing black at Carol Lockwood’s request, but it was only when he saw the mayor himself that Damon felt a twinge of genuine sympathy.

She was standing on her own in the entrance hall, wearing a simple grey dress, and compulsively wringing her hands together.

“Carol,” Damon greeted her. “My deepest condolences for your loss.”

She sniffed, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. “Thank you, Damon.”

“If there’s anything I can do at all...”

“I appreciate the offer.”

She gave him a quick smile and he touched her arm lightly before moving on. He strolled through the grounds with no apparent destination in mind, but he was keeping an eye out for someone. Stefan hadn’t bothered to turn up at this particular event, not because he didn’t care, but because he couldn’t bring himself to. Damon had rarely seen his brother so unhappy; he had gone out animal hunting for the entire day – at least, Damon hoped that he had gone out animal hunting. He’d said something about wanting to retrieve Elena’s lost necklace. Damon had no idea why he was so obsessed by the thing, unless he had some bizarre idea that it would help him get Elena back.

He found Alaric by the punch bowl, which seemed appropriate. Not the person he had been looking for, but there was plenty of time. “Hey,” said Damon. “Sure that’s strong enough?”

Ric laughed. “Yeah, not my usual. Jenna just came over. Apparently Katherine freed her from her compulsion.”

Damon frowned. “That seems... altruistic.”

In other words, not like Katherine. She didn’t do anything if not for her own personal gain. He tried to run through some possibilities of how helping Jenna could benefit Katherine, and came up blank.

“Yeah,” said Ric. “She also said that Katherine had compelled her to dump me.”

“Ouch. Rough. So, compulsion gone, does that mean you and Jenna are back together?”

Ric folded his arms, his expression wry. “No. In Jenna’s words, ‘that horse has long since bolted’.”

Double burn. Katherine could be harsh.

“Your ex has a funny way with words.” He searched around the table. “Forget the punch, Ric, you need something stronger.”

Once he had plied Alaric with what he considered the appropriate amount of alcohol, Damon turned his attention to finding the person he really wanted to talk to: Elena. The news about Katherine was still ticking in his head. She was supposed to be long gone. Elena, on the other hand, ought to be here somewhere. She wouldn’t miss the memorial.

Sure enough, he found her by the lake. Elena was alone and she jumped when he cornered her, making a face. “Damon.”

“Elena,” he said. “I heard you dumped my baby bro.”

She sighed. “I broke up with him, yes. Don’t think that means you can move in on me instead.”

He raised his hands. “The thought never crossed my mind. Why’d you do it?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Are you asking on Stefan’s behalf?”

“No, just for my own curiosity. You’re coming off a little fickle, Elena.”

“Right. I thought you’d be happy about it.”

“Well, you’ve sorely misjudged me.”

She stared at him. “Is there something you want, Damon? I want to remember the friends who lost their lives because of the sacrifice ritual that I was supposed to die in.”

“Oh, you’re mad at me,” he said. “Is it because I tried to force feed you my blood? Or because I tried to stop you from saving your precious pet Original?”

Or because of a million other things he’d done to her over the last few months. Damon hated apologizing. He had way too much to apologize for, so why bother?

“Try all that and more. You know, I’m really tired at being mad at you, Damon. It’s exhausting. Could you maybe try not doing things like that so we can be friends again?”

He raised his eyebrows. “Cranky.” But then she gave him her patented annoyed-Elena look – he seemed to have one of those from every person he knew – and Damon hastily backtracked. “I’ll try,” he said. “Actually, I have a question. A little bird tells me that Katherine freed Jenna from compulsion. Any idea why?”

“You’re the one sleeping with her. Why don’t you ask her yourself?”

Damon smiled tightly. Of course, Caroline had spilled the beans to everyone she knew. “That was kind of a one night only affair.”

“Then I don’t know,” said Elena. “Maybe Isobel asked her to.”

That didn’t sound particularly plausible. He shrugged. “Maybe. While I’m here... Can I take a message back to Stefan? He’s not doing so well right now.”

Guilt flashed across her face. “Tell him... I want us to be friends. I care about him, deeply. I just... need some space. Tell him it’s not his fault. Whatever else he feels, he shouldn’t blame himself.”

“Oh, honey,” said Damon. “I’ve been trying to tell him that for the past century and a half. But thank you. I’ll pass it on.”

She nodded, and managed a tremulous smile. Damon hesitated for a second. But actually seeing Elena out here alone and vulnerable-looking, he didn’t want to press her any further. He nodded back, and took his leave.

*

  
“I feel bad for the mayor,” said Jeremy. “Stuck here on her own.”

“Yeah,” Jenna replied. “If I were her, I’d quit. Move back to my family. This house is way too big to live in alone.”

She and Jeremy had made the rounds through the house and grounds, and spent a few moments each talking to Carol. Jeremy seemed even more subdued than usual. He had liked Tyler though, she remembered; even though they’d started off hating each other, they’d become sort of friends later on. And of course Matt had been a familiar presence in their lives for years because of Elena.

She shifted, looking at her watch. “Well, I think we’ve probably shown our faces long enough. Where did Elena go?”

Jeremy looked around. “Dunno.”

“I just saw her,” Damon said, walking up to them. “How are you doing, Jenna?”

“Great, for a funeral.” She raised an eyebrow. “Where did you see her?”

“Answer me a question and I’ll tell you.”

Next to her, Jeremy muttered something under his breath that sounded like ‘douche’, and wandered off. Damon watched him go without comment. Jenna adjusted the sleeves on her blouse and folded her arms.

“Okay. Shoot.”

“Katherine. Why did she un-compel you?”

“Hey, you slept with her. Ask her yourself.”

Damon paused. “Sometimes I’d swear that you and Elena are actually biologically related.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“You honestly have no idea why she did it? You didn’t think to ask?”

“Look, I understand that Katherine is kind of a double-crossing bitch now, but it’s not unheard of for people to do nice things. She saved your lives at the sacrifice,” Jenna reminded him.

He made an unconvinced sound, but Jenna refused to give up the details. She’d promised Elena that she wouldn’t. The important thing was that Katherine was no longer a problem, and she was in full control of her own will again. At least, she took Elena’s word for that. Jenna didn’t feel much different. She hadn’t experienced any sudden feeling pangs for Alaric, and she still had some sympathy for Katherine. Maybe because Katherine reminded her of Elena, which was probably because of the whole doppelgänger thing, but it was hard to disassociate the two.

Maybe that also explained why she’d experienced a bout of righteous indignation when Elena told her that Damon had slept with Katherine. _Ridiculous_ , she thought, _even for me._

“...Are you listening?” Damon asked.

Jenna blinked. “Uh.”

“If you’re picturing me naked, it’s okay to admit it.” He grinned. “It’s happened before.”

She was unimpressed. “I think we’ve reached the part where you cut the crap and tell me where Elena is. Or, you know what, I’ll just call her. Annoying vampire problem solved.”

When she started hunting around in her bag, Damon gave up. “Fine.” He jerked his head. “She’s over by the lake. Moping.”

“That’s a normal reaction when a friend you’ve known your entire life dies.” Jenna snapped her bag shut. “See you around, Damon.”

She was getting good at this whole handling vampires thing, if she did say so herself. Jenna left Damon without a backward glance, and headed out to the lake.

It turned out that Damon’s description was entirely correct: Elena was standing at the lake’s edge, staring disconsolately into the water. Dragonflies hovered over the reeds, their wings flashing in the lengthening rays of the sun, but her niece was oblivious. She looked far away, lost in thought. Time to snap her out of it.

Jenna called out as she approached. “Elena.”

Elena looked up and smiled. “Jenna.”

“Are you okay?”

Elena frowned. “Have you ever been in a situation when people would normally support each other, but somehow almost every single person you know is driving you crazy?”

Oh. Well, she hadn’t expected that. Then again, Elena had just had a conversation with Damon.

“You’re not including me in that, are you?”

“No,” said Elena. “You’re one of the few that aren’t; that’s why I’m asking. Right now I feel like you’re the only sane person in town.”

“You know, I’m glad to hear that. Sometimes I feel like the only non-sane person in town. Insane. Whatever. Sorry, that was a terrible joke. Seriously though, was Damon bugging you?”

“I broke up with Stefan. Everyone seems to have taken it personally.”

“Oh. Wow. Well, it was a little harsh given the timing, but I get it, Elena. You’re grieving; you need some space. You and Matt...”

She stopped. She had been about to mention that Elena had broken up with Matt for the same reason, but that was probably a bad idea for several reasons, not the least of which was the fact that it was Matt they were mourning here today, and also, way to remind Elena of her dead parents. Jenna couldn’t help thinking of Miranda and Grayson too on occasions like this, and it only reminded her of all the pain they had been through as a family.

Of course, Elena got it anyway. “That was different. Everything feels more complicated now.”

“Why’s that?” Jenna asked softly.

Elena seemed to struggle with herself for a moment. “Do you think I was wrong to pull the dagger out of Elijah?”

“It’s kinda too late for second thoughts, but...” She was stalling. She had to think about it. “I think you did what you felt was right. That’s all any of us can ever do.”

She watched as Elena considered that, and then her niece gave a small smile. It looked like she’d taken Jenna’s words to heart. Jenna thought that Elena was often too hard on herself. They’d all been forced to make difficult decisions in difficult situations; no one could expect a bunch of teenagers to do the right thing under pressure like that.

“Okay,” said Jenna. “I actually came over to tell you that we’re about to leave, but I seem to have lost Jeremy, so do you want to make your way over to the car and we’ll meet you there?”

Elena nodded. “Can you give me five more minutes?”

“No problem. It’ll probably take that long to grab him anyway. I’ll see you there.”

*

  
Bonnie wandered around outside, lost in her thoughts. She had drifted away from her friends after they’d laid down flowers for Matt and Tyler, but now she was heading back that way again. The crowds had dispersed; it was easier for mourners to come over to the flowers and pay their respects.

She kept thinking of what they could have done differently, even though she knew it was pointless.

There was one other figure already standing at the memorial. His back was turned, but Bonnie recognized him.

“Stefan?”

He looked over at her. “Hey.”

“Caroline said you weren’t coming.”

“I thought I should.”

She nodded. He was looking down at the flowers. There were piles and piles of them, blooming white and yellow and pink, jostling for space with bouquets, cards and candles, and even a football signed by various classmates. Bonnie hesitated, then bit her lip and walked over to join him.

She looked sideways at him. “I’m surprised you’re still here at all. I thought with... what happened with Elena, you’d leave town.”

He frowned. “You think there’s no other reason for me to stay?”

Truthfully, she didn’t. Bonnie got on well enough with Stefan most of the time, and he had made friends with Caroline as well as being on good terms with most of the people in their circle. But he had always been focused on Elena. It was her world that Stefan had entered, and without her, he was... Well, the way he looked now. Adrift. Cut off. Alone.

She spoke softly. “Is there?”

“I don’t know. I’ve thought about it. But I don’t want to leave her...”

She made a face. “With Damon?”

“Unprotected,” Stefan finished. “Whatever Elena feels about me, I’ll always be there for her.”

A vampire couldn’t throw around the word ‘always’ casually. And Stefan was anything but casual; he meant it, she could tell that.

She folded her arms. “Was that supposed to sound romantic? Because you basically just said you’d be her stalker.”

She kept her tone light, but perhaps Stefan recognized an element of truth in her words. He shook his head. “If she doesn’t want me in her life, I’ll stay out of it.” He had slipped a hand inside his jacket pocket as he spoke, drawing out a necklace – Elena’s necklace. Bonnie’s eyebrows shot up when he held the necklace out to her. “Maybe you should give this to her.”

Bonnie wasn’t sure if she wanted that responsibility – foisting a gift on her friend from her ex. She pressed her lips together, but took it anyway. For a short time, there was silence, both of them by some mutual agreement turning to gaze back at the memorial display. The last candle sputtered and flickered out.

She looked up at Stefan, and tried to find some words of comfort. “You know, maybe the whole sacrifice thing overwhelmed her. She doesn’t know what she wants.”

“You think so?”

“Honestly, I don’t know.” She curled the necklace in her hand. “I haven’t understood a lot of Elena’s choices recently.”

His jaw tightened just a fraction. “You mean regarding Elijah.”

“Elijah and Klaus were the reason I didn’t have a mom for over ten years. But what’s done is done. I can live with it.”

She was glad in the end that nothing had happened to destroy her friendship with Elena irreparably. She was glad that she had a chance to reconnect with her mom. And she was glad that they had destroyed Klaus. Everything else... Well. They couldn’t undo it. They’d have to move on, as always.

Stefan gave a slight smile. “I guess I should take a page from your book, huh.”

She smiled back. “Careful. My book can be a little dangerous. Witch, remember?”

He nodded, expression turning serious again. “We all owe you a big debt. This was your victory, Bonnie. Thank you.”

She could feel the necklace nestled in her hand; it had grown warm from its contact with her skin. They had done all this to save Elena’s life. She had never once thought of it as a favour. But it was nice to hear a thank you, all the same. “You’re welcome.”

*

  
Elena stared out at the water, biting her lip. She still felt bad about Stefan. Damon hadn’t been the first to nag her about him. It had been happening all week.

“I can’t believe you broke up with Stefan,” Caroline had said. “He’s like the perfect guy. Why would you do that?”

Caroline had said a lot. Bonnie talked far less, but the looks she threw at Elena were enough. Once Elena had convinced them that she hadn’t in fact moved on to the _other Salvatore_ , they were much more okay with it.

The memorial was overwhelming. She’d had to get away from it all. That was why she had come out to the lakeside, although of course that hadn’t stopped Damon or Jenna finding her.

Maybe it wasn’t a good idea that she was out here alone with her thoughts again. They were supposed to be leaving. Elena turned away from the lake and started picking her way across the grass, returning her mind to the present, and to Jenna and Jeremy.

She was halfway back when she saw him.

It was only a glimpse, half-hidden in the shadows of the trees, but it was unmistakeable. A figure in a suit... He melted away into the trees the moment she set eyes on him, but she was sure that he was beckoning her.

Elena quickened her pace, hurrying straight towards where she had seen him. The sun was just beginning to set, and the trees cast long finger-shadows over the grass. An ornate white summer house stood surrounded by flowering shrubs, and an old gnarled apple tree spread its branches above it. That was where the path led. She followed it without hesitation, and turning a corner behind the summer house she found an alcove with a white bench half-covered in ivy and honeysuckle, and there Elijah was sitting.

“Elijah,” she said.

He stood up when she greeted him, and although he had looked altogether serious and distant a moment ago, his expression softened into a pleased – not quite a smile, but a sort of regard that made her feel breathless and excited all at once.

“Elena.”

She shook her head, moving towards him. “I thought you’d gone.”

“I know my departure was a little abrupt,” he replied. “I had to clear my head. How are you feeling?”

It didn’t take long to come up with an answer. “Guilty.”

He nodded. “As am I. I spent all those years harbouring murderous intent towards my brother, yet in the final moments of his life, he chose to save me.”

Elena could hardly imagine how awful that must feel. “I’m sorry.”

“This memorial... The deceased are Klaus’s victims?” He phrased it as half-question, half-statement.

Elena nodded. She couldn’t find the heart to give him any more details, and Elijah didn’t ask.

He bit his lip, and there was something very warm and human about that; Elijah was so poised that any kind of hesitance hinted at a rare vulnerability – no, not vulnerability. Emotion. He was looking at her with compassion, and he didn’t need to say anything for her to read the regret in his eyes.

Then he shifted, glancing away, at his feet, anywhere else before looking at her again.

“I have to honour his last request.”

Elena’s eyes widened. “Klaus’s last request?”

He nodded. “Our family. He told me that they are still alive, and that they can be saved.”

“You said that Klaus scattered them at sea...”

“So I thought. Now, I’m not so sure.”

“You want to look for them,” Elena realized.

“Yes.”

That was why he had come back. To tell her that he was about to go off on a mission, one that could lead him anywhere, but would certainly take him away from Mystic Falls. She had expected him to leave. Yet it felt like all the breath had been knocked out of her body.

Elena collected herself, stated the obvious. “So you’re here to say goodbye.”

He nodded. “I don’t know how long it will take me to find them. I may be gone for some time, in which case... yes. I wanted to say goodbye.”

It could be weeks, months, years, or even lifetimes before he succeeded in finding his family. She might never see him again. Elena let his words sink in, what they meant, what she wanted to do, and Elijah let her; he simply watched her quietly, allowing her the time she needed. She hadn’t thought about what she was going to do when – if – she saw him again. But a calm surety settled over her: this, him, she knew how to deal with. She had some semblance of control.

“Okay,” said Elena. “Well, then, before you go, I have something to ask you.”

He looked amused. “You are ever more demanding, Elena.”

“Two things.”

There was a glint in his eyes as he prompted her. “Yes?”

“Well, first... I made a deal with Katherine.” She told him the story, and Elijah’s frown deepened as she explained.

“Why did she go to you?”

“She thinks that I’ll be able to persuade you.”

“Do you think that?”

There was the faintest hint of a challenge in his voice. This was another of his games, she thought; he liked it too much, the power; the air of indulgence. But Elena had always refused to play by his rules.

She shook her head. “I’m not trying to persuade you. I’m asking you.”

It happened that Elena was well-versed in persuading reluctant vampires, out of sheer necessity. Anyone who had spent enough time with Damon had to have that skill. But she didn’t try the hand on his arm, or the beguiling eyes, or anything that would seem too obvious. She simply looked at him. Surely he’d see the sense in what she had proposed.

Elijah’s mouth twitched. He was fighting not to smile, she could see it, but Elena’s gaze remained unwavering. Finally, he broke eye contact, looking down, and shrugged.

“Katerina is very clever,” he murmured. He exhaled, looking back up at her again. “Yes. Yes, I will honour your deal. I’ll spare her this once.”

“Thank you.”

Elena meant it. She had denied him revenge on Katherine, she knew that. But family was more important than revenge. She knew he understood that too.

“And your second request?” Elijah prompted.

Elena nodded, taking a breath. This one was a little more difficult. But after his response to the Katherine question, she was fairly sure that she could ask him anything. She didn’t reply immediately. Instead, she stepped around him, walking over to the white bench where she brushed a few leaves away before sitting down. There was space for both of them, though the seat was a little rickety, and the ivy was thick. It had its own charm, she thought; it felt secluded, private, and safe; a feeling she had not managed to sustain while she was over by the lake.

She looked up at him, and Elijah understood. He moved over to sit down next to her. It was more cramped than she had thought; their knees were touching. Elena found that she didn’t mind.

She paused a moment, breathing in the pollen-scented air. “You know, I thought I was going to die.”

The words hung in the air. Elijah said nothing.

“I was prepared for it,” Elena continued, her voice wobbling. “Maybe because it was actually the easier option, I don’t know. Easier than losing people. Than having to carry on with all these... these holes in your life. It’s like they eat away at you. You’re not a full person any more, you’re not completely you, because all the people who make your life what it is are gone.”

Beside her, Elijah was very still. He spoke quietly. “You become a little less than human.”

“Maybe. If you shut off the emotions, if you stop letting people in. Isn’t that what you did?”

He looked at her. “Is that what you wanted to ask me?”

“No. I want to come with you.”

He blinked. She had surprised him, even more than the deal she had made with Katherine.

“To wake your family up,” Elena clarified. “I’m pretty sure Jenna won’t let me disappear without knowing when I’ll come back. But I at least want to be with you when you revive them.”

Elijah stared at her. Finally, he spoke. “Why?”

“Because I want to.”

It might have been the most honest statement she’d made to him; it certainly provoked the clearest expression she’d ever seen in Elijah’s eyes. His lips curved into a small smile.

“But if you need a reason,” she went on, “you lost your family. You killed your brother. You’ve been alone for such a long time, I don’t know if... I don’t know. But I think you need someone to help you wake them up.”

It was as if for one awful second she’d laid him absolutely bare; the smile was wiped from his face; he looked stricken, pale with shock. Elena was afraid that she had said too much. She laid her hand over Elijah’s without thinking.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean...”

“No,” he said. “You’re very perceptive.”

“Promise me,” she said. “Promise me that you’ll take me with you.”

He didn’t look at her at first. He seemed to have just noticed her hand over his, and he took hold of it, running his thumb over her knuckles. The contact was light, yet she felt it in every one of her nerves. She felt hyper-aware of him: the one button that was casually undone on his shirt, the way his hair hung over his eyes when he looked down, the intense concentration on his face.

Slowly, deliberately, she withdrew her hand and instead brought it up to touch his face. Her fingers found the line of his jaw, and her eyes found his when he looked up at her.

He still looked vulnerable, open; she could see right into him. It was a lie that vampires had no soul, a lie that vampires felt no emotion, a lie that their hearts didn’t beat. Even his skin felt warm beneath her fingers. He was an Original. Originals were untouchable. But she had passed that barrier long ago, and as her fingers made light imprints on his skin, she heard his breath catch.

He said, “I promise.”

She didn’t acknowledge him; she had known, they had both known, what his answer would be. It made no difference, but for the way he was looking at her, his eyes drinking her in. She couldn’t see anything else, but she could feel his gaze on her, all of his senses trained on her. And Elena couldn’t hold back any longer. Her hand moved down; she grabbed the open collar of his shirt and pulled, pulled him towards her, and at the same time she leaned forward to capture his mouth.

Elijah made a soft sound at the back of his throat, quickly swallowed, and then he sank into the kiss; she closed her eyes, concentrating only on the feel of his mouth on hers, firm and soft and lingering. This, she could lose herself in.

“Ah,” he said, when she remembered to let go of his collar.

“This isn’t goodbye,” she said. “I want to see you again.”

“This isn’t goodbye, Elena.” He breathed her name, voice low and sensual, and kissed her again. If she had doubted before that Elijah felt any desire for her, her doubts vanished now: she wrapped her arms around his neck and Elijah responded, deepening the kiss, drawing her closer. She could smell ivy and honeysuckle, and then the pressed dark-blue linen of his shirt, his expensive suit jacket, the faint scent of cologne, his skin–

She’d climbed into his lap, ran her hands through his hair and moulded herself against every button of his shirt while Elijah’s mouth did delightful things to her neck, when her phone buzzed. She felt it in her jeans pocket, and since Elijah’s hand was currently gripping her thigh, he felt it too. He stopped, arching away to look at her.

Elena caught her breath, swallowing. “That’ll be Jenna. I was supposed to be meeting them... five minutes ago.”

She dug into her pocket, Elijah helpfully moving his hands up to her waist. Sure enough, it was a text message from her aunt.

“Family calls,” he said. Somehow, his voice remained even. She’d barely managed to ruffle his shirt.

Meanwhile, Elena felt as though she was pent up with too many emotions; she was breathing too fast; she was sure that she looked dishevelled. “Family calls,” she agreed.

Elijah had his mission. Elena had – her life, everything. Picking up what was left of it, starting over, whatever she wanted to call it. Family called.

And so they parted.

*

  
_Two months later._

“Happy birthday, Elena!”

Grinning, Caroline presented her with a cake on which eighteen candles had been perfectly arranged. Her friends gathered around. They were in her kitchen; Elena had been determined to ensure that this occasion was a small affair, made up only of the people she was closest to. Caroline had nevertheless ensured that the house was filled with enough party poppers and streamers to last for several birthdays.

“Make a wish!” said Caroline.

Smiling, Elena closed her eyes for a moment. _Make a wish._

She blew out the candles. Her friends cheered; Jenna shoved a glass of sparkling wine into her hand; Bonnie pulled her into a hug, and Caroline immediately started figuring out how to divide up the cake. Jeremy was her unlucky target for cake-cutting duty.

They were a small group.

But, she thought, they were her family.

“You’re still wearing the necklace,” said Bonnie, later on when they were clearing up. Elena wiped away the last cake crumbs off the counter.

“For protection,” she said.

Caroline looked up from her phone. “Oh, come on. You miss him. I can tell.”

She shook her head. “Don’t read anything into this. I miss him, but not like that. Honestly, I’m glad to have a break from all the drama.”

It had been a drama-free summer, for the most part. That helped; it gave them time to begin the healing process. She felt that she could say that this summer had been better than the last one. There had been that incident with Damon, the mayor, and accusations of electoral rigging; and that other incident with Damon’s car being stolen (he had insisted that the culprit was Katherine) that was never resolved, and Damon had also been pretty mad at her when he found out that she had allowed Katherine to buy herself her freedom without consulting him first. She didn’t regret doing it.

But apart from Damon being Damon, it was quiet.

“The drama wasn’t Stefan’s fault,” Caroline pointed out.

“I didn’t say it was.”

Bonnie wiped her hands on a tea towel, moving over to nudge Caroline’s shoulder. “The important thing is that we made it through. Right?”

“Right,” said Elena gratefully.

“So,” said Caroline, unperturbed, “how does it feel to be eighteen, Elena?”

“Um...” She was spared from having to think up a reply by her phone ringing. Elena looped her hair behind her ears, and picked her phone up from the counter.

She froze.

“Elena?” Caroline frowned at her. Maybe she could hear that Elena’s pulse rate had just sky rocketed.

“I need to take this,” Elena mumbled. “Excuse me.”

*

  
Elena slipped out of the house. She had left a handwritten note for Jenna and Jeremy, explaining where she was going. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she was wearing a light summer dress, since the nights were warm and the days were hot.

A black car was parked outside her house.

Elena turned to lock the front door, fumbling over the keys, and when she turned back to the car, a figure was standing there waiting for her. Her stomach flipped. A full moon shone down over the empty streets, picking out the angles of his face, the cut of his suit. Elena smoothed down her dress, took a deep breath, and hurried over to him.

“Okay,” she said, breathlessly; it didn’t seem quite right as a greeting, but he was smiling, and then he opened the passenger door for her, and she couldn’t quite believe that she was really doing this. She stood there watching him, breathing quick, shallow breaths, taking all of him in.

“You cut your hair,” she said, apropos of nothing.

He beckoned her. “Are you ready?”

There he was, in the dark, the Original offering his hand. A man in a suit, a black car, a promise. Elijah.

_Take me away._

She nodded firmly. “Yes.”


End file.
